Iron Deception
by phantom-lass
Summary: At 18 Toni's life is settling down. Thanks to decisions made by people who wanted to control her the whole world is under the impression that she is a man, but hey, as long as the world leaves her alone she doesn't really care. And then the Avengers Initiative happens and things get complicated again when her conscience prods her to help... Fem!Tony
1. Chapter 1

****I do not own anything, I am only playing around with the characters a little****

******So I finally got to see Avengers a couple of weeks ago and this idea has been burning at the back of my mind. What if Tony was a girl who thanks to circumstances out of her control had to pretend to be a guy?**

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**Toni's Point of View**

Toni had to admit that she got a bit of a thrill from the underwater thing. Of course to be able to do so had required tinkering around with the suit a little, adjusting the thrusters and playing around with the oxygen supply.

She was living every pre-teens (and maybe some teens) dream. She was breathing underwater – like a mermaid without a tail – and flying around the city like Peter Pan. Yip, living the dream – shame that all of it came from the sphere keeping the shrapnel from her heart.

She pushed the thought of that to the back of her mind and continued to laser the capsule, slotting the shiny new arc-reactor into the empty space and watching it click itself into place – expanding to fit. She watched the reactor light up and nearly allowed an extremely girly squeal to escape her.

She powered the thrusters and shot from the water, shutting them off for a split second to clear the water and allowing herself a heart stopping second of having nothing holding her up. She flew black towards the tower, weaving between the buildings with a practised ease.

"We're all set at this end, Pip," she told her nanny who was no doubt hovering over the screens like a mother-hen over her chicks back at the tower.

"Have you disconnected us from the main grid?" came the rough voice in reply, filling the helmet.

Toni rolled her eyes but couldn't stop the smile.

"Yes. For the 8th time, yes," she relied with fake irritation. "Stark Tower is about to become 'a beacon of self-sustaining, clean energy'," she tried to keep the mocking note from her voice but failed as she regurgitated the lines that Pip had been feeding the press over the past couple of months.

"Hah, funny. And that is assuming the arc reactor actually works and does what it is meant to do," Pip grouched back.

"Ouch, Pip, that one really hurt. Of course it will do what it is supposed to do," Ok so maybe the first try hadn't been so successful, the arc reactor burning out within a fraction of a section and sending everything into darkness within a 5 block radius of Stark Tower – maybe she had made a bit of a boob up with disconnecting the Tower from the city's main power line (even Geniuses with a capital 'G' have their off days) and the reactor hadn't been designed to power all of the other buildings – ergo, burned out arc-reactor and a lot of really irate people.

She shot towards the tower, slowing down when she turned around a building and it came into view.

"Make it so, number 1,"

A heavy, long suffering sigh met her words and she snickered to herself, some people just don't appreciate fine television. In all honesty she didn't really either but it was great fun to watch and mock after a bad day.

She watched feeling a glow of pride as all the floors lit up from the bottom to the top, ding, ding, ding. And last but not least 'Stark Tower' flickered to life along the base of the balcony to the living quarters.

Yes! She allowed herself a summersault and giggled.

"How does it look," Pip's, deep laugh rumbled through the helmet.

"Like Christmas," she told him, "but with more…me,"

He laughed again and she giggled back. She hadn't been totally on board with the project – she found the building to be a bit too…loud. But seeing it all lit up and knowing that none of it was contributing to an O-zone hole was making her giddy.

"We're going to have to get bigger with the awareness campaign," and bang went the moment.

_Well it was nice while it lasted. _

"And you need to do more press work,"

Ugh, when Pip ruined a moment he did it properly.

"I am heading to DC in the morning to get some zoning done for the next few buildings,"

Right, she was stopping this now.

"Dude, you're killing me here. There was a warm fuzzy moment happening. Remember the moment?" she asked him, knowing that he couldn't really help it. The whole idea had been Pip's brain child after all.

"And why do I have to do the press thing? Why can't you do it?" she complained.

_What was the point of having a hologram being the 'him' version of her if she couldn't skip out occasionally? Ok, fine, all the time. What? She didn't do people. _

"There's hot chocolate in here - that should keep the warm fuzzy feeling going a little bit longer. And as for the press thing – YOU need to get out more, that's why,"

Toni shivered nothing good ever happened when people made her do things because she 'needed to get out more'. Things like being nearly blown to bits and being tortured in the middle of the desert for a couple of weeks.

She straightened and landed with a think on the balcony. She was so glad that she had finally perfected the impact absorbers, she felt like she was landing on a cloud.

She began to walk at the pre-measured and times pace as various mechanical arms and screwdrivers came from their slots and began to free her from the suit.

"Miss, Agent Coulson of SHIELD is on the line," JARVIS announced.

_Phil?_

She smiled. It had been almost a fortnight since she had spoken to the agent and she had to admit that she missed him.

"Patch him through JARVIS,"

She skipped from the 'runway' toward Pip when the final pieces of her suit was removed and stored away.

"Don't JARVIS,"

Pip's slightly louder than usual voice made her jump and freeze halfway across the room.

"Pip…what the…?" this wasn't like Pip at all.

"JARVIS, connect him," she said again, waiting for the soft beep to tell her that the line was open.

"Do as I said JARVIS," Pip snapped again, pulling away from the screens and turning to look at her, his arms folded over his chest.

"What the hell Pip! We can't just ignore the guy!"

How long has Phil been trying to get through only to have Pip block him?

"Yes we can, and we will. That guy is bad news! He is only going to get you into trouble,"

She stood open mouthed. Pip was really agitated over this. The unflappable nanny of her life who would put Mary Poppins to shame was nearly frothing at the mouth over this.

"Miss – Sir – Miss," Gee he had even got JARVIS in a tizzy. "He is insisting,"

Yip, that was Phil all over. A pusher if ever there was one.

"Grow a spine JARVIS and do as I say," Pip snapped and turned back to the flashing screen. "Now…all the levels are holding steady and-"he reached over to a table next to the board "here is your hot chocolate,"

The tantalising smell of chocolate and cinnamon drifted to her sending her mouth watering and she reached for the cup still frowning over his actions. Just what did he have against Phil? Maybe it was a good idea that she had never mentioned the phone calls she had been exchanging with the SHIELD agent.

"Miss, the telephone. I am afraid that my protocols are being overridden,"

_Good old JARVIS. He knew when to let someone through and when not to. _

She patted down her trouser pockets trying to find the one with her phone and switched the steaming cup to her other hand when she found it. Pip quickly snatched it out of her hand as soon as she got it out.

"Hey! Give me that!"

"Mr Stark, we need to talk," Ok, so he wasn't alone., where ever he was.

"Pip! Give me the phone,"

"You have reached the secretary of Toni Stark, please leave a message and I will be sure to pass it on," Pip's voice was tight but professional as he spoke into the phone.

"Pip, what has gotten into you?"

Toni was dumb struck. He was taking this to a whole new level of dislike and weirdness.

"This is urgent," Phil replied, obviously not being put off by the other man's hostility.

_Ooo business phone call. Interesting. _

"Then leave it urgently," he snarled.

Then the elevator dinged and she turned to see it open, Phil standing inside, still holding his phone to his ear. She wanted to cheer for him.

"Phil," she took a quick sip of her hot chocolate and headed to the elevator. "Long time no see, come in,"

He stepped out of the elevator, smiling at her.

"I can't stay long,"

She nodded, noticing the PAD in his hand. She wouldn't be nosey and bring it up if he didn't – all though she was itching too.

"Cool. Is this flying visit going to be too speedy for a cup of coffee?"

"Afraid so,"

"His first name is 'Agent'," Pip informed her, coming to stand by her side.

She chose to ignore him.

"Are you sure? Not even enough time for a hot chocolate," she waved the cup in front of his face, trying to tempt him. "We're celebrating," she beamed, looking up and Pip and trying to lighten the mood a little.

"Which is why he can't stay,"

_Crash and burn Toni._

"Sorry Miss Stark, not even enough time for a hot chocolate. We need you to have a look at these,"

Toni nearly rubbed her hands together in glee. Something told her she was going to get to see something that was usually stamped with big red letters that read 'TOP SECRET'. Of course not having to hack anything for them did take away some of the satisfaction but she couldn't have everything.

"She doesn't like being handed things," Pip snapped.

Unfortunately he was right about this one. A left over from the whole torture thing. She winced and shot Phil and apologetic look.

"Then it is a good thing you don't have the same problem then isn't it," she gave him a cool look and he sighed heavily, taking the PAD from Phile and them the cup from her in exchange for the PAD.

"Thank you, jeez," she rolled her eyes before an impish smile flitted across her face.

"Consulting days are every other Thursday-"

"Goodbye Agent,"

She dug an elbow into Pip's side making him hiss and sending some of the hot chocolate sloshing over the side of the mug.

"But for you I'll make an exception," she smiled, heading to the board to give herself a bigger screen to work with - a bigger screen being the whole room.

Now to find out what this was all about.

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**Wow, so it has been a while *cough* months, since I have posted ANYTHING fanfic-y and to be honest I am really nervous about this. I feel like it is my first story all over again...but worse. **

**What do you think?**

**:)**


	2. Chapter 2

****Guess what? I still own nothing!****

**Wow! I never thought I would get so much interest in this story and just within 1 day. Thank you! You guys are great :)**

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**Pip's Point of View**

Philip 'Pip' Potts, glared at the SHIELD agent who shared his name, wanting to do nothing else but throttle the man. Or maybe throw him out of the window – any window, he had a whole wall of them to choose from after all. Or maybe both. Throttle him and then throw him out the window to go SPLAT on the pavement.

He clenched his fists trying to keep himself from doing either. He knew that for some reason Toni liked the guy and he knew that the open rudeness and hostility he was displaying was already upsetting and confusing her enough.

But if SHIELD thought they were going to put his girl, his charge, in danger again after things had just begun to settle down they had another thing coming. It was not happening if he could help it.

She was a kid, a very smart one who had gone through things that would break an adult, but still a kid.

"Is this about that foolish Avengers idea?" he saw Phil's eyes sharpen on him before darting to Toni and back again. He bit back the scoffing laugh at the surprise on the agent's face. There was very little that Toni didn't tell him eventually and he felt proud of the fact that she trusted him enough to do that – after the number that Obadiah had pulled on her he found it a miracle that she trusted anyone still.

He still couldn't stop the guilt from rising up in him like bile when he remembered the twisted man who had tried to kill Toni. Just how hadn't he seen the signs?

"Which I of course know nothing about," he smiled at the other Philip.

"Nah, it was scrapped right Phil?" he looked over at Toni, her small frame leaning over the board, her hands flying around as she linked up the PAD. She paused in her work and looked over at them, smiling. "Besides, I thought I wasn't team material. I'm too volatile, self-obsessed and I don't play well with others," she laughed, her face glowing brighter than the reactor in her chest.

Pip knew that the psych report was something that Agent Coulson and Fury had doctored to have her stricken from the agenda when they had found out the truth. If she were part of any team her gender wouldn't be a secret for long and although he thought letting the cat out of the bag wouldn't be a bad thing he knew that the idea freaked her out.

"I'm sorry Miss Stark, but this isn't about personality profiles anymore,"

Pip watched as both the smile and the colour faded from her face.

"Then what the hell is it about!" he snapped. He didn't like being half in the dark where things about Toni where concerned.

"Pip! A moment please," Toni's voice was sharp and he knew his attitude was upsetting her.

He sighed heavily. He didn't want to upset her but he did not want SHIELD getting their claws into her and dragging her out to perform when they needed only to shove her back in the box when they didn't. She was worth more than that; she was worth more than being made to fight battles she had not started. And let's face it. Coulson was not there to pick her brains – they no doubt had whole buildings filled with people to do the thinking at SHIELD.

He stood beside her, his tall frame dwarfing her slight onE and she looked up at him, frowning.

"What on earth is the matter with you? The guys is just trying to do his job and you are growling at him like a grizzly on day one after hibernation,"

He took a deep breath, trying not to transfer his anger at the agent onto her.

"He is bad news Toni. He equals mortal peril. Have a look at this," he stabbed at the PAD "And tell me I am wrong,"

She threw him a mutinous look before flicking her fingers on the screen and enlarging the data. Images landed at the data points of the room.

She froze and he felt a surge of justification.

Videos played around them and his blood froze in his veins. He recognised two of the subjects in the videos. Captain America – he knew all about the involvement of Toni's father in the super soldier experiment. And then there was the giant green man-thing. Hulk. SHIELD wanted Toni – his little Toni - to be involved with these people.

"Woe, OK, no you are not wrong," she whispered, the videos flashing in her eyes.

"See. Now just switch this off and send the nice little agent on his way," he encouraged her but all she did was continue to scan the screens. He knew that look. He imagined that was the kind of look Alice sported before popping the cork on the 'Drink Me' bottle.

"Pip this is serious. Besides, Phil looks pretty shaken by whatever it is," she hissed, finally looking away from the videos and looking at him.

In his mind that made it all worse. The agent was a pretty cool character and he didn't want Toni anywhere near anything that could a) flatten a tank, or b) shake the unshakable SHIELD agent – there was of course a whole alphabet full of 'Toni's not to do's' (including, don't experiment with the cat food) but a and b had just been replaced.

"Exactly! That makes this all worse. And why is he Phil?" Toni was addressing the other man far too informally for his liking.

"Pip, stop it, please" she snapped lowly at him, looking quickly over his shoulder to check on the agent. But he knew that Coulson was far too polite – or well trained – to act like he could hear them even if he clearly could.

"Toni-"

"I could help. Why are you acting like this?"

He ran a hand through his hair trying to stay calm.

"I can only handle you having a near death experience so many times Toni and you quota for the rest of your life is up," he told her and he watched as her frown softened at his words. She was like his own daughter – he had been her carer since she was 8 and one of her holo-doubles when needed until she was old enough to handle it herself – he couldn't just stand by and watch her do something dangerous without saying something.

Her little scarred hand rubbed up and down his tense arm.

"Please don't do this. Let me make my own decision,"

She looked at him pleadingly and he knew what she was really saying. Don't rule my life like Obadiah did. Ever since she was a child the man had made all of the important decisions for her, keeping her at home in that lab designing new merchandise like a trained monkey. That was until he had convinced her that a trip to see her weapons in actions would do her good… She had told Pip repeatedly that she did not want to go – at sixteen she was not sure she could handle pretending to be a thirty-five year old man for a long period of time – something she had to thank her chauvinist of a father for. He should have stuck up for her more, allowed her to decide but he had thought getting out of the lab would benefit her…and then look what happened.

"And what decision would you make?" he sighed heavily, rubbing a hand over his eyes tiredly. He knew he should be grateful she was even considering his feeling on this. Despite how he felt, he wasn't her father, and she was more than in her rights to tell him to shut up and send him in his way.

"My decision is that I think I have some homework to do," she smiled that smile that could melt the frostiest of hearts and he nodded his head in defeat.

"Fine, Toni, but for the record I am not happy with this,"

"I know you aren't," she told his softy, squeezing his hand, "But thank you,"

He pulled her into his arm, she stiffened momentarily before relaxing, her arms wrapping around his middle tightly.

"I don't want to see anything happen to you, kid," he spoke into her hair.

She squeezed his waist tighter before moving back.

"I am just going to be doing some research Pip. That is all for right now. Doing a little digging won't kill me,"

He didn't believe her for a minute. He knew that if she felt she could do something she would be in the suit and out the window before he could say 'do you have your lunch money'. And now that he knew Captain America was part of the equation he didn't think he could trust her to keep a calm head.

"Ok kid, but just remember to keep me in the loop," he gave her the 'don't ignore me this time' look but he knew it was pointless. She would do what she would do no matter what. He was an idiot to think he ever had a say in anything – but he appreciated her acting like he did.

He went straight for the elevator picking up his rucksack under the coffee table on the way.

"Need a ride?" Agent Coulson asked.

Why not have the government give him a lift? It would save on the cab fare.

"Going by LeGuardia?" he might as well go to DC tonight since the celebration had been cut short and he had everything he needed in the bag anyway so he didn't need to go home.

"Sure, I can drop you," why did the guy have to be so damn civil after he had just been anything but. Must be the super-secret-operative training.

"Hey Phil, how's it going with the cellist?" Toni shouted from where she was squinting at the board.

_Cellist?_

They got into the elevator.

"She moved back to Portland," Agent Coulson called back, pressing the button for the garage.

"Man that sucks," drifted to them as the elevator doors rolled shut with a soft thud leaving the two men in a tense silence.

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**As you guys can no doubt tell 'Pip' is the 'Pepper' of the story – although there will be NO romance between the 2. He is only the carer/protector/nanny for Toni. Hopefully this chapter has cleared up – at least a little – why Pip is acting the way he is. **

**Toodles! :)**


	3. Chapter 3

****Aaaaaaaaand I still own nothing****

**Again guys thank you for the feedbacking, following and favouriting that you have all been doing. You are all awesome!**

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**Phillip Coulson's Point of View**

Phil sighed heavily, slapping the open file shut. There was one word printed across the brown paper cover. 'STARK'. He had no idea how they were going to deal with Toni Stark if she decided to join the team.

He re-opened the file and flicked through the pages.

There were two sections to the file. The real file and the phony file (AKA : what the world thought they knew).

It was the real story that Phil was interested in right now. It had taken him the best part of a year to gather the little information that he now had together and the story was still sketchy. Obadiah Stane was the only one who knew the truth and since he was dead all he knew for sure was what was in the file…and the occasional bit of information that Toni sometimes dropped. But the sad thing was that even Toni didn't know the whole truth.

All that they could be sure of was that Howard Stark, one of the greatest minds ever to come out of America, had been unable to cope with the idea of not having a son to inherit the business. Oh there had been a son of sorts, a created one, a fictional one, tutored at home and kept out of the public eye, until even the most open-minded had begun to question his lack of…well…appearance.

He leaned back in his chair pushing the file away from him and stretching his legs up, his newly shined shoes now taking up the empty space on the table and closed his eyes.

Did the old man ever realise when he started the ridiculous fiasco what problems it would cause? Probably not, he answered his own question.

The vibrating of his phone on the plush arm of the seat – SHIELD did not skimp on anything - cut of his thoughts and he picked it up, not even opening his eyes as he pressed the accept button.

"Coulson,"

"Oh good, Pip didn't glue you to the runway and run over you with a plane, there is hope after all," piped a cheery female voice from the other end.

He slowly opened his eyes and sat up straight, taking his feet from the table. He wasn't all that surprised by the phone call although it was coming a little earlier than he had anticipated.

"Miss Stark. What can I do for you?" he decided to stay professional.

"Spill Phil,"

Alright, so it was going to be one of _those_ conversations.

"Pardon?"

An annoyed sigh came from the other end of the line and he smiled slightly. He knew that she wouldn't be able to resist the situation.

"You heard me Phil. Spill. What is this really about?" maybe she hadn't done her 'homework' yet because if she had he had no doubt she would know as much as him right now…perhaps through some less than legal channels but she would be well-informed (maybe even more so than him).

"I thought you were doing your 'homework'?"

"I have done my research on the members of this little 'team' Fury wants to make, now I am wanting some answers. So can you please fill in some of the Grand Canyon sized gaps for me," it wasn't a request.

"Really?" he replied dryly, waving over one of the flight attendants and covering the mouth piece to ask for a coffee.

"I am not going to get involved in something I don't know enough about. Now, tell be exactly what you can't discuss without risking those pesky treason charges" she paused and the unspoken 'and I will find the information myself' filled the silence.

"But as for the rest I would appreciate some answers," she added quickly.

He sighed. What could he do? If he answered her he might as well be handing her the information on a silver platter anyway. But if he didn't would she refuse to help?

"Studies and tests on the Tesseract," he reluctantly replied.

"Ok, see I can be reasonable,"

He scoffed at that, snorting out of his nose as the professional act went flying out of the window. There was a rustling of papers from Toni's end as he thanked the attendant for the steaming cup of strong coffee she paced in front of him.

"Now, this Loki guy, what do we know about him?"

Phil began to list what Loki had been responsible for.

"No, Phil," she interrupted, "I mean his motives. People just don't wake-up one morning and decide that travelling across the galaxy and beginning an evil plan set on world domination is a good idea. It has to come from somewhere,"

Phil couldn't agree more but the sad fact was that since Thor had failed to return to earth they knew frustratingly little about the Asgardians and what exactly had caused the god vs god-machine death match.

"We know very little," he informed her,

"Ouch, that must hurt for the most well informed organisation on the planet," he could hear the laughter in her voice and smiled himself when he remember Fury's reaction. The director didn't like being blocked by anyone – even Norse Gods from a different planet.

"Last year Loki and his brother Th-"

"Thor, God of Thunder," came another giggled interruption, "Hah, the joke fodder will be endless," she chuckled.

He cleared his throat, trying to bring back some gravity to the conversation and he questioned - certainly not for the last time – if they were doing the right thing by bringing her into the project. She was smart – one of the brightest minds on the planet (the suit proved that) - but she was just a kid and an emotionally and socially stunted one at that. But then again, all geniuses had their quirks and there was nothing to say that she wouldn't be the same way 10 years from now. In fact, he expected very much she would be.

"Thor," he continued sternly, "came onto our radar last year when he and Loki nearly flattened a town in New Mexico,"

"Hah! I knew it. Freak weather has cover story written all over it by the way Phil," she crowed in delight and then she paused. "Hey, was that why you abandoned me in the lab that night? To go and deal with this guy and his hammer? Because let me tell you, making a whole new element is a lot cooler. And you missed me destroying half of my lab to do –"

"Unfortunately," he began again, sternly interrupting her, "we don't know anything else other than that there seems to be a bit of a history between the brothers. Thor returned to his planet and hasn't been seen since, without him we have no way of knowing what is really going on,"

"I'm thinking…extreme sibling rivalry," Toni suggested, "but something would have had to have sparked it…" Toni trailed off thoughtfully.

Phil sat patiently sipping at his coffee, he knew she would talk when she wanted too and he would get farther trying to knock down a brick wall with his skull than getting her to speak on command – which he had a feeling Director Fury was hoping for. It would be amusing to see how that went.

"Or…mummy and daddy issues," the silence was broken after a good few minutes and Phil finished draining the cup, smiling at the attendant and waving it – the universally acknowledged sign for 'refill time'.

"And what makes you think that?" he tried to hide the smile, he really did, but Toni Stark thought that she had the answer to everything and listening to her dump very human motives onto the actions on beings who had been alive for centuries was amusing.

"Are you mocking me? You are aren't you? I can feel you smiling,"

Maybe if he could see her he would be afraid, but he couldn't and he wasn't, so the smile stayed in place.

"Just explain to be how you reached that conclusion – you are the genius on the pay roll after all," OK so he was mocking her a little there.

"Really? When can I expect my first pay cheque?" she sounded excited.

"Figuratively speaking anyway," he dead panned, "And besides you waived the fee last year, remember?"

"Phil, the buzz kill," she griped from her end before chuckling.

"Ah yes, my good friend Senator Stern…that was the highlight of the month. Except for managing to not die from reactor-poisoning of course, that was definitely a good thing too-"

"Toni!" she was beginning to ramble now and in all honesty all of the times she had nearly dies made him as edgy as he knew they made her carer.

_And here you are just lining her up for her next near death experience. Way to show you care, Coulson._

"Sorry, right. Well common sense made me come to that conclusion, Mr Bond," she answered in the most ridiculous British accent he had ever heard.

Common sense? He couldn't wait for her to explain this one.

"Believe me, inferiority complexes have a lot to answer for," she told him matter of factly but Phil found the idea too ridiculous. Ancient gods did not have inferiority complexes. They were gods, it just didn't happen.

"Really Toni, I don't think that is what we are looking at here,"

He could almost see her frown and then shrug.

"Well it was just a suggestion," she mumbled.

"And you are telling me you got no information at all out of Thunder Pants before he went back to the Land of Oz?"

He knew from eyewitness accounts that there had been a talk between Thor and the god made death-machine but no one had been close enough to hear what had been said. No, they were flying blind where that was concerned. All they knew was what Loki intended to do and that he had no qualms about using whatever means necessary to achieve his goal.

"Nothing,"

Silence. And then a heavy sigh.

"Fine, I'm in," she sounded tired.

"You are," he was shocked. But then she was the kind of person who could not leave something alone before she knew everything.

"Yes, I'm in. On one condition,"

He froze at that, the SHIELD agent in him sending up big red flags at the words 'condition'. Conditions in his experience where never a good thing.

His phone began to vibrate in his hand and he pulled it away from his ear for a second.

**INCOMING CALL – FURY** flashed the screen.

"I'm sorry Toni but I have to go," he spoke into the phone putting it back to his ear, "Just e-mail me the condition and I'll see what we can do.

"OK," he moved the phone closer to his ear - she sounded a bit faint, "Say hi to Dreaded Pirate Roberts for me, yeah?"

He didn't even bother asking how she knew it was the director he had to hang up on her for. He was sure she had a sixth sense about things.

"I will pass on your condition to Director fury when I receive it," he assured her instead, "Bye Toni,"

"Oh and Phil,"

"Yes Toni," he sighed. The director did not appreciate being kept waiting.

"Check your coat pocket. Night," and the line went dead.

Phil just looked at his phone in dumb surprise for a moment before dropping it onto the table and reaching for his jacket on the opposite seat.

Fury could wait a few more seconds.

He rifled through the pockets. His left and right, breast pockets, then the bottom left, nothing. And then he patted the right, feeling something stiff, before reaching in and pulling out a card, just bigger than a credit card with a note paper clipped to it.

_**You**__ are what heroes are made of!_

_-A_

He turned it over, ignoring the slight tugging in his chest and smiled softly. There, staring up at him was Steven Rogers - Captain America.

He had his last card.

"How did she do that?"

* * *

**Hi! Are you guys feeling spoiled? 3 chapters in one week :)**

**So what do you think? I have a huge soft spot for Phil and I couldn't resist giving him his own chapter – besides you just got some more info on Toni's situation. And isn't she clever ;)**

**I hope you are all having a fun weekend. **

**:-)**


	4. Chapter 4

****And I still own nothing – go figure ;)****

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**Toni's Point of View**

From: Genius Extraordinaire

To: Super-Agent P to the C

Sent:

Subject: I won't take it personally that you find Fury more interesting than me

Condition - I get to be me

Toni stared at the screen of her tonEE-Pad - good thing she wasn't looking to sell it or she would have to think up a snazzier name. Personally she thought the tonEE-Pad was a really good name which was why the device was staying hers. And only hers.

The sent e-mail was mocking her. What had she been thinking? She didn't really know. The condition had come to her in a flash when she had been speaking to Phil and she had already typed and sent the e-mail before she had hung up the phone.

But now that she was thinking about it she felt so stupid, so childish with her request. What were the chances of any of the 'team' taking her seriously and treating her as an equal member of the Avengers if she walked in as she was now? Toni Stark, teen genius. They would laugh her out of the building without wearing Anthony Stark, playboy and genius. As it stood Tony Stark wasn't loved by everyone and she wouldn't be surprised if he…she(damn it, she didn't know how to talk about herself anymore)had the prejudice of more than a few people to deal with.

Brilliant. She was damned if she did and damned if she didn't.

But I know how to deal as Anthony Stark. I don't know how to be Toni in public...not really.

"JARVIS,"

Her voice filled the silence of her lab. She looked around it. She wasn't sure she liked it. It was too shiny and new. Her lab back home was filled with half-finished projects, scratches and there was still some rubble from her sudden need to remodel last year - she had nursed a torn muscle in her shoulder for weeks after that, but boy had it been fun.

"Yes, Miss,"

"Retrieve the e-mail I just sent to Phil and replace the message with, 'No conditions need to be met'"

"Very well Miss"

"And JARVIS," she turned back to her tonEE-Pad and turned it on its side, bringing up the schematics of an Iron Man suit "begin running diagnostics on the Mark 7,"

"Diagnostic running,"

"Thanks J," she replied, feeling more tired in this one moment than she ever had in her life. She flicked the schematics to the side and brought up another image, with a few hand swivels she 'threw' the image from the screen of the Pad and into the centre of the room.

She kicked herself from the table, the wheelie chair skittering across the room to stop inches before her head distorted the image. She stood, pushed the chair back to the desk and began circling the image before heading to a cabinet standing quit innocently by the soldering bench and racked through it, pulling out spools of wire and cable, along with a roll of insulation.

She opened more drawers, pushing things aside in agitation, unable to locate what she was looking for. Another thing she hated about this new lab. She couldn't find anything!

"JARVIS," she called, her head in the deep bottom drawer, "We did bring the box of bits didn't we? I can't find it!"

She never went anywhere without the box. It was filled with...well...bits. Pieces from all sorts of things that on their own wouldn't be too helpful but it kept her amused to fiddle with them and make random stuff or sometimes there was a final piece to a current project hiding away in it.

Right now there was everything from an old TV remote to the cap off a toothpaste tube.

She knew exactly what she needed out of it.

"Might I suggest the cabinet beneath your desk, Miss,"

She shuffled around on her knees and looked at her desk, glaring at the grey cabinet. She had forgotten about that. It had been Pip's great idea to come up with under the desk storage for her lab so she didn't 'break her neck' by tripping over paper clip, pen...spare chest piece that could blow them all to smithereens.

The first thing she did when she got to the desk was slide the whole thing out from under the workstation and plant it next to her desk instead.

There.

It looked so much happier next to the desk and not under it.

She quickly found her box of bits and mumbled a "You're the man, Jarvis," at the room. She tipped it out over the desk, ghosting her fingers over the spread content, pushing some items aside in favour of others while making up a little pile.

"Jarvis transfer image to Projection Point 1 –"the room dimmed at her back as the image vanished from the centre of the room to reappear to her right, hovering in miniature just above the surface of her desk. She spun it, changing the angle. Nodding her head in satisfaction and held the now empty box at the edge of the table and swept everything that had not been put into the pile back into it.

Crossing her arms over her chest she studied the image.

"Jarvis, begin a new file, leave the title blank and save to my own server," she told him, beginning to make changes to the image before her in her mind, seeing what the final product would be in her mind's eye. Yes, it would do the job perfectly.

She had tried to hack into SHIELDs system before she had contacted Phil but whatever they were hiding – and they _were _hiding something she knew it – they were hiding it good. No, if she wanted to get to the bottom of it she would have to do so from the inside. And modifying the all-frequencies jamming bug would do the trick nicely. A few changes here and there and she would be all set to start scanning.

"Not another secret project, Miss," JARVIS almost sounded like he was whining. She would have to ease up on the personality upgrades or she would have two Nannies instead of just Pip.

"Just what is wrong with my secret projects?" she demanded, bringing up another image of the internal systems of the bug and noting what would have to stay and what would have to go… and she would have to make it a bit smaller – she doubted shield would have a handy flowerpot hanging around for her to dump it on.

She pulled out a hidden hearing aid and unclipped the side, sliding out the tiny battery.

Her smile grew wide and devious.

It was better than the perfect size!

"Your last secret project resulted in the Iron Man Suit, Miss,"

Oops, she had forgotten about JARVIS.

"Aaand?" she questioned.

"According to my data since the completion of the Mark 2 suit you have nearly died six times – all times with a direct link to the suit,"

"Wow, you are getting as bad as Pip, JARVIS," she told him dryly.

"I am attempting to make the point that secret projects appear to be bad for your health, Miss"

"Duly noted, Jarvis. Duly noted… Now, let's get to work," she rubbed her hands together, this was going to be fun.

**Six hours later**

Toni yawned sleepily, staggering up the stairs from the lab and stumbling down the hallway to her bedroom, clutching a small box in her hands.

She collapsed onto her bed and sighed in relief as she sank into the mattress. Pip was right; her late night invention sessions were not healthy (especially as they happened more often than not). When she got an idea she just found it impossible to stop until she was finished. And that was just what had happened now. She had worked through the night to complete the bug. She squeezed the box and put it onto her night stand. Anyone looking at the small cube would assume it contained a necklace…or maybe a ring. They would never guess that it was ground-breaking bit of hack-ware.

The last hour had been spent running some simulations and checking the signal strength and consistency. This had left her with nothing else to do but to read through the evaluations of the other Avengers.

Her eyebrows had vanished into her hairline when she saw that there was only going to be one other woman on the team. She tried not to let it bug her and failed miserably.

So, they had two kick-butt-kill-you-with-a-paper-clip assassins – she found Clinton Barton's weapon of choice fascinating.

_I wonder if the Hawkeye dude would teach me how to use a bow and arrow if I asked nicely?_

From what she could figure out though the two SHIELD agents were more like babysitters. There to make sure that the super-heroes played nicely with each other.

Next there was Bruce Banner. Hulk. She had shaken her head sadly at that. They were going to drag the poor man into this mess. She had seen the footage from a few years ago when he had… Was there a technical term for it? Gone green? Hulked out? Gotten angry. There! It wasn't a pretty sight and she knew that the doctor had spent all of his time and resources since the accident with the radiation looking for a way to reverse the effects. She felt truly sad for the man whose like had been ruined in such a way. But it was fascinating, like an extreme Jekyll and Hyde and she admitted to some slight fan-girl tendencies when it came to Doctor Banner, some of his academic papers were truly genius.

And then, last but not least, there was the original all American hero. Steven Rogers, better known as, Captain America. The scientist in her was amazed that the man had survived as long as he had and she mentally tipped her head to her father for his share in making the serum.

Toni felt like the whole Avengers gig sounded like the beginning of a bad bar joke. Two assassins, a tin man, a green man and an ice man all walk into a bar-

Personally she didn't see the team surviving everyone's egos. But hey, if Fury wanted to play defender of the planet who was she to draw his attention to that depressing fact? Besides it would me much too entertaining to watch him discover it for himself.

She blinked open her lids and looked through bleary eyes at her bedside clock. 7:52AM. the numbers danced a little in her vision until she could focus. She kicked off her shoes, narrowly avoiding rolling of the bed and landing in a painful heap on the floor.

She managed to wriggle out of her jeans and yank her shirt over her head, climbing under the cool covers in her underwear. The slight chill to the bedding was heavenly.

"JARVIS, wake me up in five hours please,"

"Of course, miss,"

"Lights out,"

The room fell into darkness and Toni snuggled in, ready for a well-earned sleep after spending the night planning some good old-fashioned treason.

**Nick Fury's Point of View**

Nick Fury Director of SHIELD stood on the bridge of the Helicarrier.

Everything was coming together.

He had received a call from Steve Rogers the night before, telling him that he was 'in'. Fury had wasted no time in getting hold of Coulson and having him do a U-turn to retrieve the captain.

Romanoff had called in to say that she had retrieved Bruce Banner without incident and were on route to the Helicarrier. Fury was glad that he had pushed ahead with the preparations for Banner's arrival. He was ready for the Hulk if the beast put the operation in danger.

And finally there was Toni Stark. He had received her e-mail late in the night, forwarded from Coulson.

_'No conditions need to be met'_

Coulson had told him about Stark being willing to help if a condition was met. He wondered what had changed her mind.

He had a soft spot for the girl he had met just over a year ago. She was a strange little thing, an interesting mixture of wisdom and immaturity. She was far from perfect and her smart ass attitude did tend to get on his nerves after a while.

"_I'm sorry, I don't want to get off on the wrong foot here. Do I look at the patch or the eye?" _

And she had zero brain to mouth filter most of the time. He smiled slightly at the memory and he glared at the shocked face of one of the bridge hands.

But she had handled herself well all things considered when they had first met – OK, she had made him swallow (and choke) on his own words about Howard Stark – and he had no doubt that she would make a good team member.

Yes…it was all coming together.

* * *

**Hi guys. **

**Soooo what do you think? I even threw in a little bit of Fury for you all :) And Toni making the 'bug' because, I wanted too :)**

**I meant to have this chapter up sooner but I have a nasty virus currently beating my system to smithereens so everything has been a bit stilted this week.:( **

**Feedback is yummy and good and nice and makes fairies very happy :)**


	5. Chapter 5

****I still own nowt****

**You are all so AWESOME! Thank you so much for all of the reviews :)**

* * *

**Toni's Point of View**

Toni was woken up not even two hours later by a constant loud beep that filled the room. She tugged her cover over her head and burrowed further into it and her pillows, but not before catching a glimpse at the time from her bedside clock.

"JARVIS," she moaned from under her quilt, "whoever it is tell them to go away,"

"I am sorry miss," the refined English accent of her AI now replaced the beeping tone – although it still sounded like it was going off in her head (she made a mental note to fix it, maybe she should have it play Frank Sinatra instead?) "-but there are several agents from SHIELD in the lobby,"

_Seriously?_

It was bad enough that Phil got into the building when technically it wasn't even open yet – and she liked Phil – but having complete strangers just wandering around the building was not on.

"Have their IDs checked out, JARVIS?" she asked quickly, not at all paranoid, nope, not one little bit.

"All their identifications check out, miss," came the ever sober reply from JARVIS and the slight panic that had been building somewhere in her chest receded. Not that anything would have happened to her if they weren't from SHIELD She could be in her suit in under ten seconds and she would have them all blasted to kingdom come before they could even fire a round, but she still felt uneasy with being without Pip.

"They are requesting to speak with you,"

She snorted. Yeah right. SHIELD do not 'request' to talk to anyone. They just do it. Or kidnap you, lock you in your own home and cut you off from all forms of communication. Ah yes, good times.

"Are they still in the lobby, JARVIS?"

"For the time being. They have been trying to contact you through the intercom but you disengaged it last week," she smiled slightly at the memory. She had finally gotten fed up of the work men playing beam-me-up-Scotty with it and had switched off the whole system – it had been funny to watch them when they thought they had broken it. Their panic stricken faces had been priceless.

"I though it prudent to contact you when they began to speak of screwdrivers,"

She cringed at that. Not only did they come to see her without so much as a phone call but then they wanted to take apart the buildings internal communication network. Idiots!

"Would you like me to patch them through?"

She sighed wearily, getting used to the idea that she would be getting no more sleep today and finally lowered the quilt from her face and rolled to her back.

"Go for it JARVIS, and don't forget to mask my voice," she reminded him, all though she knew she didn't need to and that he would disguise her voice automatically when it came to unknowns.

"Mr Stark," a very male and slightly congested voice filled her room. She almost felt sorry for the guy who was obviously coming down with the cold.

"Can we speak with you please?"

Toni smirked to herself. She knew what that was code for but she refused to make it easy for them. After all, it went against all of her principles to make anything easy for anyone.

"I believe that is what we are doing now, Agent…?" she wondered if he was a newbie, or maybe he had pulled the short straw. That was usually what happened when agents got sent her way.

"Hunter. And face to face would be ideal, sir," ok, so obviously not a newbie, they tended to freeze up for a few seconds and then trip through an explanation.

She sighed heavily.

_Why me?_

"Very well Agent Hunter, JARVIS will show you up,"

"Thank you,"

The connection beeped as the agent hung up.

"JARVIS, open up an elevator and direct them to the top floor, I should be ready by then,"

With eyes still bleary from the little amount of sleep she had gotten she groped for her bedside cabinet and yanked open the top drawer and pulled out four broad silver cuffs. She groggily slid them on. One on each ankle and then repeating the process with her wrists. And then, realising she hadn't even gotten dressed yet she moaned at the extra effort that would take.

Reaching from the bed to the floor she scooped up her jeans from where they had fallen and stood to shimmy into them. She fell back onto the mattress when her head began to spin from the speed she had stood up at.

She whined to the empty room, feeling miserable.

Yes the world was on the brink of destruction – but hey, wasn't it always? – but what good was she to anyone if she was so tired she was seeing double?

Finally after several tries she succeeded in getting into her jeans and t-shirt. Technically she didn't really need the clothes but even the idea of walking round nearly naked under the hologram freaked her out. Besides, you never knew when something could go wrong and she was not going to be revealed to the world (or whoever was around at the time) in her favourite most comfortable underwear. That was not happening!

She straightened out the rumpled material and then pulled up the bottom of the shirt, tucking it under her chin to keep it out of the way and leaving both her hands free. She fiddled for a second with a small button located in the mount of the reactor in her chest and pressed it down, dropping her shirt.

She felt the electrical tingle from the cuffs on her limbs and knew that if she could be bothered looking there would be a red light pulsing on each of the silver bands.

She glanced into the mirror attached to the door of her wardrobe as her face and body were replaced with those of the Tony Stark that everyone knew. The initial glow from the holographic formed faded after a second as the disguise settled over her and solidified. She pulled some random faces and winked each of her eyes, making sure that the cuffs were reading her movements correctly and mirroring them on the face of Tony Stark.

She really needed to come up with a new and easier programme to change the clothing. Tony Stark had been wearing the same casual, jeans and Iron Maiden (yes, she got a huge kick out of that!) t-shirt for the past 2 months.

"Miss Stark, the agents are in the elevator on the observation deck,"

"I'm on my way," the gruff, definitely masculine voice that met her ears had her nodding at her not-her-reflection.

Everything was in working order.

She jogged up the steps to the next floor and rounded the corner to see two men in suits standing in the elevator. She liked them being in the elevator and not in the room with her. All it would take was one word to JARVIS and they would be back in the lobby before they could say 'Ground Floor'.

"Gentleman, what can I be doing for the men in black today? Any alien cockroaches in need of squishing?"

They just looked at her…well, him.

Okay then.

"Mr Stark we are here under direct orders from Director Fury to bring you in," said the agent who sounded a lot like Hunter.

She really hated the no-nonsense, 'you WILL do as I say' voice that all of the SHIELD agents seemed to have nailed. Of course they then came to see her and she showed them that the tone didn't work with everyone. The surprise on their faces when this happened was always worth the annoyance of having them around.

He held out an envelope to her and quirked an eyebrow when she didn't take it from him immediately.

"Sorry, I don't like being handed things," she looked around, nothing. She really needed to put a table by the elevator for times like this. "Just…put it on the floor," she gestures to the ground and the agent sighed (no doubt thinking she was so weird eccentric rich person) but did what she asked, sliding the envelope towards her.

She scooped it up and nearly choked on her laughter. There was actually TOP SECRET printed across the front. Was that supposed to stop someone from getting ideas because from personal experience something like that on any document was like an open invitation to have a good snoop.

She ripped it open carefully, trying to appear as arrogant and collected as Tony Stark should do, and pulled out the only thing that was in it. A single sheet of paper. She scanned the numbers printed across the page.

Co-ordinates. And they sure as hell weren't to anything on land either. She was sure the numbers represented somewhere in the North Atlantic.

Toni glanced back up at the agents and quirked an eye-brow.

"We have been given instructions to take whatever items you may feel are necessary to the jet. You are welcome to accompany us or you can use the suit. The choice is up to you, sir,"

She nodded her head thoughtfully, watching the agents with narrowed eyes.

Did she want to be in a kind of closed in space with these men for more than two minutes? The answer would be no.

"I'll take the suit guys," she told them firmly and all Hunter did was nod his head while the younger agent stood silent. So…Hunter obviously pulled the short straw and the other guy was a newbie judging from the silence.

"I'll go pack for the sleepover," she grinned walking back towards the staircase and slipping the co-ordinates back into the envelope.

"The kitchen is two floors down, help yourselves to coffee," she yelled over her shoulder a she skipped down the stairs to her room. There was no reply from the agents, but then she hadn't really expected one.

She placed the super-dooper-secret envelope onto her desk and dragged a small holdall out from the bottom of her closet.

Toni glanced around the room. It was still very bare and had an almost clinical feel to it – the smell of fresh paint still hung in the air if you took a deep enough breath. She missed Malibu. Especially the garage come work room.

She shook herself.

_Now is not the time, Toni. _

She began yanking open drawers and pulling out clothes, throwing them on the bed in piles. A pile of jeans, a pile of t-shirts, and a pile of underwear. Then she began sorting through them.

"JARVIS, call Phil please," she just couldn't resist it. Besides it gave her something else to do while packing the bag to be transported to the 'location'. She rolled her eyes. They sure did love to keep up the whole secrecy act – although she would admit to some curiosity.

What kind of base would be in the middle of the ocean? An aircraft carrier maybe?

She tried the stretchiness of the waist bands on the jeans, only packing the two pairs with the most elasticity – she didn't know what they were going to have her doing and she was not going to be feeling like she was being cut in half all day if she had her peering over a computer screen all day.

She did the same with the underwear and t-shirts, only packing the most comfortable out of all of them. And then she threw in her favourite pair of boots – the ones that she could stand or walk for hours in without even the whisper of a blister. They had been re-soled so many times she had lost count.

The dial tone cut off and Phil's voice announced himself over the line. She zipped up the bag and then unzipped it, walking through to her bathroom.

"I have the password to the tree-house," she announced brightly, stuffing her toothbrush and other bathroom necessities into the toiletry bag that had been sitting by the sink since she had arrived at the tower.

"So Director Fury informed me," Phil chuckled.

"And are there going to be other boys and girls for me to play with?" she asked the empty bathroom, shutting the flap of the bag and heading back into her bedroom.

"Yes, there will be other children for you to play with," Phil replied, sighing. She knew that he sometimes led than serious attitude to things played on his nerves a little so she didn't take it seriously.

"Ooo really. Who?" she slid the toiletry bag down the side of her boots and this time zipped the main compartment up for good.

_Yes, please tell me who I will be sharing a possible suicide mission with because we both know Fury doesn't want me involved with this for my brains. _

She slipped her phone and the bug into her jeans pockets. She couldn't risk packing them in with her clothes in case some over eager SHIELD agent decided to go snooping in her stuff – which she knew they would. Instead, all they would find would be some very regular clothing – of course she would leave it up to their imagination as to why Tony Stark had a bag packed with obviously female clothing.

The papers would have a field day with that one.

Play-boy – Closet Transvestite! Yip, that would definitely keep her in giggles for weeks.

"It will have to stay a surprise Toni,"

"Please tell me. Please, please, please," she begged in the whiniest voice she could muster while collapsing back onto her still unmade bed. Was it her imagination or was it still warm and utterly inviting?

When she got nowhere quickly with the begging she gave up.

"Fine," she grumbled sitting back up on the bed and standing up.

"I have to make sure that everything it alright with the travel crate. I assume that the chuckle brothers have some way to transport it?" she was so proud of the crate and although she had used it in testing she hadn't actually gone anywhere with it. Of course she would rather the first time not be a trip to stop the end of the world…

"Yes, that shouldn't be a problem. You are flying I assume,"

"Of course,"

"Go and check everything over Toni, I will check the transportation arrangements,"

"Thank you," she sighed in relief. Her suit would be fine without anywhere specific to be stored but she had made the crate for that reason and it was filled with spare parts too in case of damages.

She knew that Phil was probably doing that slightly bashful thing that he did whenever someone showed any appreciation. Toni didn't think people said 'thank you' to him an awful lot and the poor guy didn't know what to do with himself when they did.

She quickly exchanged a goodbye with him and shot out a quick 'see you soon' before he hung up.

She went through a quick mental list and deciding that she only really needed two more thing other than the suit and crate she dashed to the lab for her tonEE-Pad and med-kit and then headed to the secure basement to run checks on the crate.

* * *

**Philip Coulson's Point of View**

Phil listened into the radio chatter as he hovered over the shoulder of one of the technicians.

Even in one of SHIELD's highly advanced jets the flight to Germany would still take just over two hours and a lot could happen in that time. And eagle eye was being kept on Loki. He wasn't going to leave Stuttgart without them knowing when and how.

He stood up knowing that he was making the tech uncomfortable with is hovering.

"Coulson,"

He stood straighter at the directors voice and turned to face Fury.

"Sir,"

"Where do we stand with Stark?"

_Toni?_

He had spoken to her almost an hour ago and then to the two agents assigned to bring her in just twenty minutes before. They had told him that she was suiting up and that they would be at the hellicarrier – along with her 'necessary items' (one being a several tone metal capsule) - within the hour,

"Mr Stark is on his way. Agents Hunter and McGwyer also,"

"Good, contact Stark and have him rendezvous with Rogers and Romanoff in Germany. They may need the back-up,"

Phil frowned at this. Fury was just going to throw Toni in at the proverbial deep end before she even arrived on the carrier by the looks of it.

"Sir, are you-"

Fury cut him off with a look.

"Yes sir,"

It looked like Iron Man was going to Germany.

**Hi guys!**

**I am so sorry for the delay (again) I wanted this to be up last week but I have been pretty ill thanks to the antibiotics that were supposed to make me feel better – ironic or what? ;/ But you can't say I'm not good too you. This is a nice long chapter after all and is moving us nearer the action. WHOOHOO!**

**I am trying not to info-dump you all so I hope I avoided that in this chapter. **

**I have made some changes. Like having Tony Stark wearing an Iron Maiden t-shirt instead of Black Sabbath – I couldn't resist ;)**

**Remember feedback makes the fairies happy :)**


	6. Chapter 6

****I still own nothing (shock horror)****

**You guys continue to be amazing!**

* * *

******Toni's Point of View**

Germany?

Toni tweaked her flight plan and destination, continuing onwards, making the adjustments as easily as if she had been born doing it.

It looked like she was going to get two field trips in one day.

_Lucky me. _

Phil had told her that she was to 'rendezvous with Captain America and Agent Romanoff'. She rolled her eyes. Personally she though that the All American Hero and the Russian Femme Fatale could manage everything just fine on their own – hell, from all the newspaper clippings her dad had kept painstakingly catalogued on Captain America he could take out Loki with one hand tied behind his back. Although- according to Phil – if the situation (that she was to 'assess' and 'act accordingly' to) called for her pulling his red, white and blue butt out of the proverbial fire she would not stick her nose up at the opportunity.

Toni was just glad that she had perfected and fine-tuned the suit to such a point that it could fly almost indefinitely – that was one thing that she had her old man to thank for, the new arc reactor had been a god send in more ways than one – or this little jaunt to Europe would have ended with a very undignified splash in the middle of the North Atlantic somewhere. She quickly checked the weather - the suit may not run out of power but there was nothing to stop a hurricane sending her spinning into the ocean. Clear skies and seas as long as she dipped along the bottom of the British Isles and not along the top.

The hours passed reasonably quickly as she recorded the changes she was wanting to make to a new arm piece and before she knew it she was zipping over France and would be crossing into Belgium and then Germany soon. She shot over the invisible borders – after all there were no check points or passport flashings at 1000 feet.

_I've never been to Europe before, _she thought fleetingly. But then again, she hadn't been many places when you came down to it. After all most of her travelling was done flying by suit and consisted of heading to the middle of a fry-an-egg-on-the-sand desert in the middle of nowhere and blowing up her own weapons – fun times.

And it looked like she wouldn't even get a decent stop on this visit. She had always though that the Black Forest sounded so romantic too… She sighed heavily. She would be giving a whole new meaning to the term 'flying visit'.

'NEARING DESTINATION' flashed the helmet as country side faded away below her, being replaced with lights and concrete. She began to descend, zooming in on the scene outside of the concert hall. She tensed as she saw Loki prepare to fire his sceptre and then relaxed when she spotted the jet and Captain America leap from it to land in a protective crouch in front of the elderly man Loki was aiming for.

The shot bounced off the shield and right back at Loki and Toni barked out a laugh when Loki was planted face first on the pavement.

_Ha! Bet he didn't see that one coming. _

The smile was quickly replaced with a frown when he got easily to his feet. No injuries! Brilliant, so he was going to be one of _those_ bad guys.

She landed carefully on the roof of one of the many surrounding buildings, going unnoticed by everyone but a pigeon who flew of in disgust. Deciding that a little more assessing was needed she plonked herself down on the edge of the roof and raised her helmet. She watched as Captain Blue Butt faced off against Loki.

_Damn but he's cute. _

She slammed a lid down on _that _thought.

_No! Crazy human enslaving masters of all evil are not cute_, she reminded herself.

A beam of blue incinerate-whatever-it-touches-except-for-the-evil-dude energy went flying by the building she was perched on as the jet swerved out of the way just in time.

That was a little too close for comfort. She stood and dropped her helmet once more across her face, preparing to intervene or dodge the next near-miss that came her way.

The Captains shield bounced of Loki's staff and went skittered across the pavement.

Oops, looked like that one didn't work out to plan. Loki and the Captain duck and swerved to avoid blows, planting their own when and wherever possible. She tensed, ready to make a move when Loki's staff was pressed into the base of the captains neck. He rolled though, kicking out and getting free, only to be grabbed by his neck.

_Ok, time to break this up. _

She fired up the thrusters and patched into the jet's system – it was way too easy.

_I'll need to talk to Fury about that. If I could do it then any genius-mastermind evil villain can. _

Deciding to play the arrogant and flamboyant Anthony Stark to the hilt – who was she to disappoint – she greeted Agent Romanoff as she had one of her favourite songs play through the jet's speakers.

Bonnie Tyler's 'I Need a Hero' (fitting really, she thought) shot through the jet's PA system - she was definitely going to have to have a word with Fury about the security – and she swerved from behind and under the jet, straightening long enough to send a blast of energy right at Loki's chest – if his own weapon didn't kill him she was fairly confident she couldn't kill him, at least through one little shot.

She landed, feeling her boots dig into the brick – _Damn, I'll pay for that _– and listed her arms aiming her whole arsenal at him.

"Make one move, Rudolph…" she dragged off as he straightened slowly from where he had landed on some steps. He raised his hands in surrender and his suit glowed and faded from his body, leaving him in the clothing she had seen him in the recordings and his head bare.

Now that was one pretty piece of technology, unless it was just a god thing.

"Good mover," she praised him.

She kept her gaze fixed on Loki as she slowly lowered her arms and saw Captain America just enter her line of vision.

"Mr Stark," he panted.

She nodded her head in acknowledgement, still keeping her eyes on the alien in front of her.

"Captain,"

Toni kept watching him. She watched as she heard the jet land behind her, she watched him as they escorted him – handcuffed and as docile as a new born lamb – to the jet. She stood beside the captain near the cockpit as Agent Romanoff expertly manoeuvred them away from the buildings and out of the town, contacting Fury as she did.

Something wasn't adding up and it was annoying Toni. She had no doubt that Loki had a plan – they just had to figure out what it was. And then there was the glint of something in his eyes when he had looked at her…well, him.

"I don't like it. It doesn't make any sense," the voice of Steve Rogers dragged her from her thoughts.

"What? Older-the-dirt over there giving up so easily?" she mumbled in reply. She say Loki head twitch slightly and she knew that he could hear them.

"Yeah, I don't remember it being _that_ easy,"

_You and me both buddy!_

"This guy packs a wallop," Rogers added on at the end, just to clarify.

"Still, you didn't do too badly yourself. You know, for an older fellow…" she glanced away from Loki to look at the Captain. "What's your secret? Pilates?"

She focused on Loki again but not before catching the look of confusion on the man's face.

"What?"

Yip, no idea what she was talking about.

"Sorry, you probably missed out on that. You know, while you were serving time as a Capsicle,"

Yes! She did a mental happy dance but tried to keep her face straight – something that she noticed Loki was failing at if that quirk of his lip was anything to go by. Finally a name. She felt Roger's tense. Oops maybe it's a little too soon to be prodding _that_ particular hurt.

"Fury didn't tell me he was calling you in," he told her stiffly.

So he was bringing out the big guns and throwing around the 'boss's' name. She scoffed, he didn't know her well enough to know that intimidation didn't work with her.

"Yeah, well, there is a lot of stuff that Fury doesn't tell you,"

_Damn spies and their need for secrets. _

Silence fell between them for a second and whatever the Captains reply was going to be remained unknown as a crash of thunder sounded through the jet and light flashed.

"Where's this came from," Romanoff mumbled from the controls.

Toni didn't like this, especially when Loki began to look a little edgy.

"Scared of a little storm," Roger's mocked and Toni glanced between the two men. The boy wonder wasn't concerned that Loki's permanent cool was beginning to thaw? Hell, they had shot him and cuffed him and he had remained aloof but now he was fidgeting. It bothered her!

"I'm not overly fond of what follows," Loki answered.

Thunk! The jet jerked as something crashed into the roof.

_Now what?_

She pressed the button for the ramp to be lowered, she could take a look outside safely enough. She heard Roger's yell at her, asking what she was doing as she placed the helmet over her head and it lowered into place.

_Dude, isn't it obvious?_

She was only a foot or so away from the ramp when a bulky figure landed in front of her. It took her a few seconds to recognise the man in armour and a billowing cloak for who he was.

Thor!

The honest to goodness God of Thunder was standing in front of her...and raising his hammer at her.

She fired up her palms, but not soon enough as the hammer came crashing into her chest sending her flying to land sprawled out just where she had been standing a few seconds before.

She struggled to her feet, her chest hurting, just in time to watch the red cloak complete with Loki disappear out the jet and into the night.

"And now there's that guy," she griped, annoyed that he had landed one on her.

"Another Asgardian?" Romanoff shouted from the front of the jet.

"Think her's a friendly?" Rogers yelled over the sound of the rushing air.

"It doesn't matter," she told him, making her way back to the ramp. They had to get Loki back or they could wave bye bye to planet earth, because whoever had the Tesseract sure as hell wasn't trying to get a light bulb to work with it.

"If he frees Loki or kills him we've lost the Tesseract," she prepared to jump.

"Stark, we need a plan of attack!"

Yeah sure, and while we are planning Thor can be magicing Loki to a galaxy far far away or slamming the hammer through his chest. Not happening.

"I have a plan. Attack!"

She fell from the jet, firing up her thrusters.

* * *

**Hi guys. **

**So I have a totally legitimate reason for this being so late. I was repainting my room and boxed up my copy of Avengers - I know, I was disgusted with myself. There were some bits I needed to make sure of before I posted this. But all is well, the room is done and I have the sections I needed. Woohoo.  
**

**The response to this story is amazing by the way. Thank you for all the reviews and PMs. You all rock! The next chapter will be up a lot sooner. Promise :) Hopefully in the next few days but at least by the end of the week.**

**Take care everyone. **

**P.S**

**I've also updated by original story - Sink or Swim - Diary of a Teenage Sea Monster over on wattpad. The link is on my profile if you want to check it out!**


	7. Chapter 7

****You guys are still amazing! 111 of you following this story - *hands out Iron Man shaped cookies* Mwa!****

****And, surprise, surprise, I still own nowt!"**

* * *

**Toni's Point of View**

It took her longer than she had wanted to find Loki and Thor, the alien gods standing on a rocky rise looking over a forest.

_Looks like I am getting to see the Black Forest after all. _

They were having something out between them if the agitated movements were anything to go by, but nothing was turning violent - yet. Maybe she could just land and have a nice chat with Thor and let him know that they needed to borrow Loki for the time being but he could totally have him back later.

_Crap!_

She sped up as she watched Thor's hammer magically land in his outstretched hand and he pointed it threateningly at Loki, gripping the other man by the shoulder with his free hand.

Human weapons couldn't kill Loki but she didn't know about mythical alien weapons and she wasn't willing to take the chance.

_The dude is a god, _Toni reasoned with herself, _and he managed to 'poof' out of nowhere and fly out of a plane. So, me crashing into him shouldn't be a problem…hopefully. _

It sounded like a logical idea to her so she followed through with her half thought out plan. Ploughing into the bulk of muscle and armour that was Thor just as he moved the hammer into his brother's face.

_Ouch!_

Toni felt the impact through every part of her body, her nerves ringing but she fought to clear her mind, not daring to think what this would have felt like if her suit hadn't absorbed at least some of the impact.

_Ok, so maybe I should have thought this out a bit more, _she berated herself as the force of her barrelling into Thor sent them both crashing through trees before she released Thor and sent him bouncing along the dirt of the forest floor. He looked like a stone skipping along the surface of a pond as he hit and left the ground several times before thudding to a stop.

Toni couldn't help but grin as she managed to stay on her feet, skidding along the dirt, slightly crouching to keep her balance, before coming to a complete stop and standing straight. So maybe she hadn't planned that but he didn't need to know that she wasn't that cool.

Thor straightened up as she lifted the face plate of her HUD, if she was going to put someone in their place she would rather do it holographic face to face – it was only polite (unless of course you were an evil genius then all manners went out the window as she tried to shoot you – but that was beside the point).

"Do not touch me again," Thor 'warned' her.

_Seriously, people!_ Threats just got her hackles up and did anything but make her want to back down.

"Then don't take my stuff," she countered.

_Could I sound any more like a bitchy cheerleader? _

"You have no idea what you are dealing with," Thor informed her.

Ok, so maybe he had a point there, with Fury and his constant need to play things close to his bullet-proof vest she had no doubt that there were things that they were being kept in the dark about. But that was something she as going to rectify as soon as she got to the 'base'.

In the meantime…

"Shakespeare in the park?" she gave him a pointed look, taking in the floor length cloak and the kick butt armour. _Mine is still prettier, _she thought waspishly and struck a pose "Doth Mother know you weareth her drapes?"

_Good move Toni, just antagonise the hammer wielding Thunder God. _She really needed to work on the mind to mouth filter but she was never around people long enough to make it worth her while. But then Thor looked almost amused by her comment...and then he sobered up.

"This is beyond you, Metal Man,"

Metal Man? She shivered at the thought of the media christening her that name instead of Iron Man. What a dreadful idea.

"Loki will face Asgardian justice,"

Ummm, so she didn't know what 'Asgardian justice' entailed but it didn't sound like rainbows and My Little Ponies.

_Just stay calm and explain to him what has happened. _

"Look, I'm sorry to put a great spanner in you plan, but you can't have him right now," there, she sounded polite and absolutely no sarcasm had laced her voice. Ok, so maybe a little bit, but that was all it was.

He raised his hammer.

Seriously! Why did she have to get the bash first ask questions later guy. He hadn't even given her the chance to say he could have Loki once they were done with him. At least Captain Icicle Butt had got the 'Mwahaha I am evil' speech from Loki.

She lowered the HUD back into place and ducked just as the hammer slammed into the earth, leaving a dent she could easily lay down in. Charming.

"Whoa dude, really, let's talk about this," his hammer came at her again and she swerved out of the way.

"I am sorry that you can't have him right now but we are going through a bit of a situation here," she gasped, if you could call immanent destruction of all mankind a 'situation'.

She was too slow to miss the next swing of the hammer and it caught her shoulder, sending her spinning into a boulder, the force of her landing crushing some of it to rubble as it fractured beneath her.

That was going to leave a bruise.

She scrambled and powered herself a few feet to the side, bits of pulverised boulder scraping against her suit as she just missed another blow from the hammer.

She rolled to her front and scrambled to her feet, charging her hand piece and firing at the god. She missed.

Cold dread flooded her as she watching him raise the hammer and lighting arched from the sky, travelling through it and him like he was a giant conductor.

And then he aimed it at her.

_Oh no._

She covered her face in a vain attempt to protect herself and she fell to one knee as the electricity danced through the suit. She had prepared for the possibility of storms while she flew but she doubted it could handle this much electricity being aimed right at her.

Then it stopped.

"Power at 400% capacity," JARVIS's ever calm voice informed her.

She quirked her head, unable to stop the slightly demonic grin from flitting across her lips as she glared at Thor.

"Imagine that,"

She raised both her hands at the god and fired before he had a chance to react. Sparks flew from her as the extra power left the suit. The shots landed right in Thor's chest and he flew backwards. Toni staggered from the extra kick of the shot and groaned when she saw Thor land in a perfect crouch.

_Why me?_

She followed his example and crouched, ready for anything. He shot upwards and she did the same a second after, slamming into him in mid-air. She kept going, keeping as tight a grip as she could, aiming for the wall of a cliff and hoping bashing him into that several times would knock some sense into him. And even if it didn't it would make her feel better after the boulder incident.

She slammed him into the rock, his armour shrieking in protest as she continued to fly upwards. And then the next thing she knew they were arcing away from it as Thor pushed away from the cliff. She saw trees fly by her when the damn cape wasn't obscuring her view and felt them fracture and break behind her as they once again went crashing to the ground, this time she was the one to land in a heap.

She staggered to her feet but not fast enough as Thor gripped her arm. Spark began to fly from it as he squeezed, the suit protesting against the man's strength. She bit back a cry of pain as something snapped in the suit's arm, digging painfully into her skin.

She head butted him. Not the most original (or smart) idea she had ever had, she thought as her vision danced for a second.

Thor slammed the hammer into her front and she heard something crack just before she was airborne yet again for a few seconds. She felt and heard more trees splintering and breaking at her back – she was going to plant a whole bunch of them to make up for this – and felt herself begin to slow before sliding to a stop. She tried to breath, to heave herself out of the pile of what had been trees and was now just wood.

_Ouch. _

Ok, breathing was obviously a bad idea.

She finally slumped to her hands and knees and felt the pressure of the metal of her suit bending at the back of her neck and suddenly everything was upside down.

The pressure left just as she was slammed onto her back.

Thankfully she had the few seconds it took Thor's hammer to come to him for her eyes to clear and see him looming over her ready to strike. She couldn't take another hit to her chest right now.

In a panic she boosted the thrusters just as he began to swing and she slid out from under him. She lifted her head and saw him fall forward into the space she had just vacated.

Climbing quickly to her feet she flew forward landing a punch to his face before her could get up.

"Hey!"

The word registered but she raised her fist to land another blow as Thor faced her.

And then something flew into her vision, ricocheting off Thor to bounce off her. It shocked Thor enough to make him pause and she followed the trail of the thing back up to where the Capsicle stood, catching his shield like a Frisbee.

_He just whacked me with that! Talk about adding insult to injury. _

"Enough!" his voice rang out through the now silent forest as he slid the shield (Toni glared at it) over his arm and jumped effortlessly from where he was standing on a rock above them.

She felt the childish urge to stamp her foot, point and the god and scream "He started it!".

But she kept quiet.

"Now I don't know what you plan on doing here-" Capsicle started.

"I've come to put an end to Loki's schemes," Thor interrupted.

Toni thought this was all pretty unfair. How come he had stopped when Mr Star Spangled Banner came along but when she was trying to talk to him all he could do was bash as her with that damn hammer – and break one of her ribs if the trouble she was having breathing was anything to go by.

"Then prove it and put the hammer down,"

She nearly laughed at that. Not going to happen.

""Cap, yeah…uh…no," she stuttered, not wanting this to end up as another all out fight again. "Bad call, he loves his hammer,"

And with that Thor drew the hammer back slamming her again in the chest – _brilliant there goes another rib – _and launched himself at Capsicle.

"You want me to put the hammer down?" she heard Thor yell as she landed – _this is getting old. _

White light filled her vision and pressure made her stay on her back, and then just as quickly as it came it was gone.

"What the hell," she grumbled painfully as she got to her feet for what felt like the hundredth time that day and staggered towards Thor and Capsicle who were also climbing to her feet.

They stood staring at each other, well, she stared at them while Capsicle eyed up the hammer and Thor eyes up the shield.

It clicked in Toni's head what must have happened. _Note to self – adamantium shield and godly hammer of rib breaking abilities do not mix. _

Toni's feelings on the shield from a few seconds ago changed as she wondered if she incorporate the material into the suit.

She finally broke the silence wanting to get herself patched up.

"Can we go now,"

**Hi my darlings,**

**How lucky are you guys, quick update or what ;)**

**I hope you are all having a good week so far :)**

**I hope you liked the fight scene and some of the changes I made. I know it is pretty close to what happened in the movie but believe me there will be plenty of differences coming up in the future!**

**And if you are here and waiting for the romance to happen, patience peeps it will all come together. Feel free to voice who you think Toni should get together with by the way :)**

**Many thanks to SarcasticSam for letting me know that Iron Man's helmet is actually a HUD (Heads-Up Display). So sometimes it will be referred to as helmet (when I am talking about the whole thing) or HUD (I think for when I am talking about the front section). Thank you very much for that! :)**

**Coming up next – Toni meets the rest of the team :)**

**Hopefully the next update will be Saturday or Sunday!**

**Toodles**

**PS - Remember feedback makes the fairies happy! x**


	8. Chapter 8

**130 FOLLOWERS! Guys you ROCK!**

**And I still don't own anything.**

* * *

**Toni's Point of View**

Toni stood stiffly in the jet – coincidently, in the exact same place she had been before Thor had taken it upon himself to hijack their prisoner – trying to breathe deeply and steadily through the pain in her ribs as she fiddled with the inner panelling of her helmet. That final blast had done a number on her communications system and she really needed to get through to Phil before they reached the base.

After the rather awkward face-off they had experienced, surrounded by demolished forest, something had seemed to dawn on each of them at the same time. If they were there glaring holes in each other then who was looking after Loki?

Thor had swung his hammer like a lasso and flown off without a word or a backwards glance. Toni hadn't been able to prevent the flinch as Thor began to move the damn hammer but she quickly recovered and took off after him, leaving Icicle Pants to his own devices – if he hadn't been able to find them she would have went back for him…eventually.

She followed Thor to the same place where she had first bashed into him – that despite everything wasn't all that far away – expecting to find it clear of any demonic god…

Toni had been pleasantly surprised to see one re-cuffed Loki being lead back to the jet. The jet that was sitting in a place that she thought would have been physically impossible for it to be landed.

While Thor stomped towards his brother – obviously deciding against the smash and grab approach this time around – Toni carefully removed her helmet, a section of panelling scraping against her cheek. She felt the sting and winced, her eyes watering. To anyone watching her she knew it would look like her eyes were tearing up for no reason, the holograph hiding any injuries. She had studied the damages, recognising the cause of the damage. It looked like the lightning quick-charge from Thor had caused a problem after all. Wires were burned and melted into a section of panelling. How she avoided burning her face she couldn't tell.

Rogers had shown up just as Romanoff had yelled from the jet for them to 'get a move on'.

So now she was standing in pain, in a jet filled with awkward silence, fiddling around with the wiring of her helmet. And to think Pip had thought she was being anal when she had designed a tool kit into the leg of her suit. It wasn't anything huge, just a laser pen and a screw driver, but it was keeping her occupied during the tense flight.

She was trying to rewire the helmet, taking away from the navigation systems to temporally get the communications system working again until she could do a more permanent fix.

She carefully used the laser pen to tease away wires from each other and refuse them with others. Romanoff had complained about the smell but she pointedly ignored her after telling the spy to 'crack a window'.

She needed to get through to Phil without anyone hearing the conversation and find out where her things had been taken too. She would have to remove the suit away from any prying eyes and deactivate the cuffs to patch herself up before seeing anyone. As it was her right hand was beginning to tingle and she had no idea what kind of damage she would find. She could probably survive a nuclear blast in the suit but one angry Asgardian had managed to nearly crush her in it single handed – literally.

She slipped the helmet onto her head and nearly started to hop p and down as the HUD lit up with the communications screen and then began to flicker off and on. She sighed.

_Nearly there though. _

She removed it and began to fiddle again. At least she knew where the problem was. Not enough power.

She ignored the look Rogers was throwing her.

_He probably thinks I am being rude or something,_ she snorted to herself. But she knew that the man was too busy keeping an eye on Thor and Loki to be really bothered with her.

She fused the last two wires together and slid the helmet back on. Again the HUD came to life with the communications screen and she held her breath, breathing out in pained relief as the screen remained steady.

She brought up Phil's information and smiled when she heard his voice.

"Phil?" her voice sounded strained to her own ears.

"Mr Stark, how can I help you," obviously the agent was surrounded by the minions of S.H.I.E.L.D.

"Please tell me my stuff has arrived?" she begged him, "and where I can find it,"

She saw Capsicle look at her funny, no doubt wondering why she was wearing her helmet for so long.

Well it was none of his business.

He didn't answer her immediately but she heard him walking.

"Toni? Are you still there?" minion-less now it would seem.

"Yeah Phil, I'm here,"

"Yes, your things have arrived, they are in one of the storage bays, why?" poor Phil, he sounded so concerned, one of the few people who actually gave a damn if something happened to her.

"I need to get out of the suit as soon as I can Phil and I need to have privacy to do it," she told him calmly.

"Toni, are you hurt?" damn, now he sounded really worried – he knew how the hologram worked. She could be bleeding to death and there would be no sign of injury on her 'body' only a pool of blood at her feet. Guilt swamped her immediately. She didn't want him to be worried about her.

"Nothing I can't handle," she couldn't be sure if she was lying to him until she got the suit of but until then she would let him think she was fine.

"Toni are you-"

"Phil, I'm fine, all I need is some privacy and directions,"

Phil sighed heavily but told her how to get to the storage facility and ensured her that he would make sure that it was kept clear of personnel and medical supplies would be waiting.

"Thank you," she sighed in relief ending the call after a quick goodbye before Phil could ask more questions.

She took off the helmet to find Capsicle and Thor looking into the cockpit and Loki looking at her.

_Creepy. _

"Report straight to the briefing station," Fury's voice drifted through the jet from the speakers.

"Yes sir," Romanoff answered.

_Great, now I am going to seem like a right brat!_

**Half an hour later**

The first thing that Toni did once they reached the hellicarrier – well, after she had let herself have the teeny-tiniest drool over the floating Nirvana, the technological floating Eden – was to unceremoniously ditch the other passengers and prisoner and make a beeline for the entrance.

She was the one wearing the freaking metal armour all over her and yet she seemed to be the only one injured! How was that right on any level?

When no one protested against the plan to immediately attend a de-briefing with Fury she knew that she was going to be the only one who would be throwing the apparent man fit. But there was no way that she would be making it through a meeting that could last who knew how long without collapsing in a heap.

So she had tried to not make a big deal out of her need to remove the suit. Just saying she would be along as soon as she could.

But had Romanoff and Rogers been happy to accept what she said and leave it at that. No. She had fumed as the all but spelled out that it was an order.

_Well Fury sure as hell isn't my boss, _she had stewed struggling to keep a rein on her rapidly freying temper.

_I should have just stayed in bed and have JARVIS lock out the agents. _

But she managed to count to ten and stop herself from saying something she would regret and instead tried to make light of it.

"Uh, seriously, the heat rashes this thing causes are unbelievable, and I won't embarrass your blushing ears with some of the places they end up," she raised an eyebrow at the blushing Captain America as she let his imagination fill in on all the details. She had a feeling that if he was truly aware of her gender he would be passing out from heat stroke thanks to his blush. But unfortunately all she got was some slightly uncomfortable glances and pink tinged ears.

The Captain had shaken his embarrassment off with impressive speed and had quickly set about trying to guilt her into attending the debriefing before changing – something very dramatic about time being of the essence. She had even seen Natasha role her eyes at the request to remove the suit as soon as she could.

Toni had felt the uncharacteristic need to burst into tears at their reactions. So they thought that she was some rich and spoiled man-child, was it really that big of a request?

_Maybe I should have told them about my injuries... _she mused clomping through the corridors as she followed Phil's instructions on how to get to her things. Her arm was throbbing now and she needed to take something for her ribs.

_No!_

She had seen the looks on their faces as they exchanges glances. The fact that she was sporting dents in her suit hadn't even caused any concern. And what if they had wanted to see them? She couldn't do that without dropping the holograph.

Did she really act like such an unlikable git that they didn't even care that Thor had been bashing her around like a punching bag? In fact the God of Thunder looked so guilty over his attack on her that she felt kind of sorry for him. And when she tried her best to avoid looking at Capsicle and Romanoff when she no longer needed to fuss with her helmet she found Loki's eyes fixed on her constantly, a look of deep concentration on his face. It had made her edgy and she had been glad for more than one reason when the jet landed and she bolted for it.

She walked with purpose through the corridors, ignoring the looks from the S.H.I.E.L.D staff – after all Iron Man in full suit strolling the corridors was probably some sight so she couldn't blame them really – but she was happy that the bustling bodies became less and less the nearer to storage she got. Finally she reached a section of door lined corridor that was deserted entirely – it seemed like Phil had kept his promise - and scanned the numbers above the doors.

Finally.

She punched the entry button to the storage bay Coulson had told her of and felt nearly giddy with relief as her eyes landed on the travel capsule.

"There's my baby," she mumbled, stepping through the door and locking it from the inside – so one was coming in while she was sorting herself out.

She ran an armour plated hand along the base of the capsule, feeling the little groove that marked the manual unlocking and pressed down hard. She stood painfully slow and stepped back as the capsule opened into a horseshoe shape, the inner lighting shedding a glow over her as she deactivated the cuffs. She caught her reflection in one of the inner panels and saw the head of Anthony Stark shimmer away, leaving her own.

Beep, beep, trilled the door behind her as it hissed open.

Panicked she scrambled for her helmet, not daring to turn around and reveal her face to the intruder.

"It's just me,"

"Phil?"

She spun around, forgetting about her helmet, and faced the agent. Her vision danced for a second and she staggered to lean against the capsule.

Several Phil's dashed towards her.

"Toni?"

"I'm fine, just give me a minute," she took several deep, painful breaths.

"What are you doing here?" she asked slowly as she straightened from her support when only one Phil was standing in front of her.

He glanced down and she followed his eyes.

He was carrying a box filled with the promised medical supplies.

She smiled at him.

"Phil, you are an angel in disguise, you know that?"

Phil just smiled that 'Awe shucks' smile of his and put down the box as she turned to the line of drawers inside the capsule - taking out what she needed to manually remove the crushed right arm and dented breast plate of the suit.

"You bag is here too," Phil informed her stepping to the side and picking up her bag, moving it closer to her.

"Thanks,"

She stepped into the capsule and re-programmed the de-suiting order. She raised out her left arm as electronic limbs unfolded from the back 'wall' of the capsule, making quick and easy work of removing the arm piece and storing it away for her to check over later.

She flexed her arm and wiggled her fingers, stepping away from her machine and picking up her tools.

She began the painful process of removing the suit from her damaged right arm. The tingling was getting worse in her fingers.

"How did this happen?" Phil asked her, coming to stand by her side and watch.

"Thunder Butt," she grumbled, struggling to get the screwdriver into the small gap at the joint. She just needed to press down on that point and then –

_Got it!_

A panel from shoulder to elbow fell away.

"Thor did this to you?" Phil sounded agitated.

She looked away from her arm and up at him.

Yip, he looked it too.

"Yeah, he didn't take too kindly to us having Loki," she held the screwdriver between her teeth using her forefinger and thumb to press simultaneously down on points either side of her wrist.

"He felt sorry about it," she spoke around the screwdriver until Phil reached for it, taking it from her mouth.

"Thank. You should have seen his face, poor guy was giving himself a massive guilt trip," she scrunched her face up with the effort to get the pressure exactly the same on each side of her wrist.

She felt the joint give and the remaining pieces attached to her arm dropped to the floor with a clang.

She hissed in a breath as something scraped across her skin and the feeling rushed back into her now uncovered fingers.

An ugly gash twisted from just below her elbow around to not quit the middle of her arm, and her skin was beginning to bruise. She could clearly make out a Thor sized hand print. She looked closer at the cut, it wasn't too deep - it had just been a bit of a bleeder.

Deciding it could do a bit longer she began work on her breast plate, taking the screwdriver back from the dumbstruck Phil.

"It's not that bad," she told him, trying to be reassuring, as she unscrewed what needed to be loosened down her side.

"Can you stand begin me, I need you to catch the back plate, it'll fall as soon as I have it loosened,"

_And also, I only have a sports bra on under here and I don't want to embarrass you. _

"Sure,"

She made quick work of the rest of the joint, taking off some of the supporting plates and strips and then held the breast plate firmly to her chest as she did the final thing.

She immediately dropped the screwdriver and gripped the breast plate with both hands lowering it carefully to the ground.

She winced, the pain even worse in her ribs now there was no support.

She looked down and groaned. A deep purple bruise spread from the middle of her stomach around her side.

She would have to wrap it and deal with it properly after all this was over.

She heard a clank behind her and turned to see Phil blushing from the neckline of his shirt to the tips his ears and then his eyes widened as he caught sight of the bruising. She fought down her own embarrassment.

"Phil, I need you to turn off the automatic blushing and bashful thing you have going on and give me a hand with this, please," she hissed as she felt along the ribs.

She hated putting him in what was a hugely uncomfortable situation for him and his blush stayed where it was but he did step forward.

"I need you to help me wrap it up,"

"Toni, maybe you should go to the infirmary for this?"

"I can't be treated with the cuffs on Phil, you know that," she reminded him, "besides all they could do is send me away with painkillers and tell me to rest. I can do the painkiller thing myself and I can't afford to rest right now," she met his eyes now, "please Phil,"

He sighed heavily, obviously not happy with what he was about to do but headed over to the box he brought.

"Thank you, Phil,"

**Hi guys**

**So I know I said that Toni would meet the rest of the team in this chapter but it kind of took on a life of its own…Next time, I promise. **

**You all continue to be amazing! And I hope you liked this chapter – even though I did go on for quite a bit. **

**I don't know the workings of the suit etc so I was using artistic licence there :)**

**About Broken/Cracked Ribs – according to every place I have checked you aren't supposed to wrap them up – Toni knows this but like she said, she doesn't have time to do things by the book right now. :)**

**Happy weekend everyone. **

******I am coming down with something nasty so there might be a a few more days until the next update :( Sorry :(**

**x**


	9. Chapter 9

**Hi amazing peeps!**

***I still own nothing, playing with the Marvel toys etc etc****

**Enjoy! :)**

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**Phillip Coulson's Point of View**

Phil knew that Toni was trying to set him at ease as he wrapped her ribs – making sure the bandage was tight enough to be supportive but loose enough for her to breath.

She chatted about her current projects, some changes she was making to the suit, the problems that came with the changes and some silliness to do with the builders and workmen at the Tower during the construction.

He smiled and laughed when he knew she expected him to, letting her think that her chatter was doing what she wanted it to – keeping him distracted.

But his mind was whirling.

He recalled Fury's words from only days before _'We are at war'. _The director was right, they were, but they were fighting against things that they – if they were being honest with themselves – had no idea about. Technology of the Gods…and in any war there were casualties…

Guilt churned inside him. She was involved no because he had taken her the files and knew that she wouldn't be able to refuse the challenge. She was injured no because he had followed orders and sent her to Germany. To make it worse was the fact that she had made it through the encounter with Loki without so much as a scratch and yet it was the clash with an ally that led to her standing in front of him covered his scratches and bruises.

She thanked him as he stepped away from her, the bandaging complete. He watched as she used one of the reflective panels from the inside of her capsule to deal with the long scratch on her face and then she double checked the bandage she had wrapped around her arm.

Was that bruise a…handprint?

He would have another talk with Fury and respectfully ask that more care be taken with where Toni was sent in the future. They all had the bad habit of thinking the suit was indestructible. Today had been a timely reminder that it was anything but.

**Toni's Point of View**

Toni knew that Phil Knew exactly what she was trying to do as she prattled on and on about anything and everything that popped into her head. After all, you didn't get so near the top rung of the ladder of a super-secret organisation like S.H.I.E.L.D by being an idiot.

But Phil let her keep going. Nodding, commenting and making the right noises in all the right spaces she left them for him.

Trying to keep up the chirpy one-sided conversation was starting to stress her out and she was glad when he finished with the bandage and stepped away from her.

"Thanks Nurse Phil," she smiled at him cheekily.

He gave no response.

_Oookaaay then. _

Resisting the urge to whistle to fill the silence she made use of the shiny insides of the suit capsule and made quick work of cleaning the cut on her cheek after collecting the swabs she needed from the box Phil had put on the floor.

She hissed as the stinging liquid hit her broken skin but she persevered, first with her face and then with her arm. Damn, Thor's handprint was becoming a deeper purple on her arm.

Finishing up with her DIY First Aid she stepped into the capsule and finally relieved herself of the bottom half of her suit, she sighed at the sudden weightlessness she felt as she was left standing in jeans and pumps.

She felt her pocket, double checking that he phone and the bug were still where she had put them, thank full that the top part of her body had been the most damaged when she felt they were still there and whole.

Stepping back down she raked through her bag looking for one of the loosest fitting shirts of the loose fitting shirts she had brought along.

"Bingo!" she pulled out a t-shirt that she had actually packed for sleeping in but decided that it could do just as well for her now – no one would be able to see the Winnie the Pooh and Piglet print covering the soft cotton anyway once the cuffs were up and running.

She spared a glance over her shoulder to see that poor Phil had turned his back to her – poor guy was probably mortified after seeing so much Toni-skin (although he should count himself lucky that she was a practical girl who loved her vests and sports bras over skimpy lace numbers or he could have been seeing a lot more of her than he had). Not wanting to prolong the uncomfortable situation for either of them she carefully slid the shirt over her head, slipping her injured arm slowly through the holes and gingerly pulling the fabric down over the bandages.

"It's safe to look now Phil," she assured her companion and the S.H.I.E.L.D agent turned to face her. He quirked an eyebrow at her obviously questionable fashion sense and then he seemed to remember something, patting his pockets and walking towards the box.

She couldn't see what he was looking for, his back blocking the view of the object of his concentration but when he turned around again he was holding something out to her.

"Here," it was a mars bar. Toni smiled in thanks, her mouth immediately watering and took it, she hadn't even realised how hungry she was until the food was right there.

She took it and tore open the wrapper; biting into the chocolatey goodness she practically inhaled the bar.

He watched her eat and then once she was finished he held out a bottle of water and a strip of pills.

That uncharacteristic desire to cry rose within her and the burning began at the back of her throat. She coughed, trying to dislodge the sudden build-up of emotion and took the bottle and the pills from him.

"Two now and then see how you get on," he told her and she wasted no time in popping two of the round white tablets from the foil and downing them with a gulp of water.

She smacked her lips together and grinned at Phil.

"Nurse Phil, you are an angel of mercy," she told him and his time her smiled faintly at her before catching himself and scowling slightly.

"Better get you to the de-briefing," he told her, pointing at her wrists as a reminder to put on the cuffs. She huffed but trudged over to where she had put them and slid them on her wrists and ankles, switching them and walking towards him. She felt the slight tingle through her chest piece as they activated.

"All set," she told the agent, her own voice now replaced with the deeper tones of Anthony Stark, her baggy jeans and Winnie the Pooh nightshirt vanished no longer visible instead there was the 'casual smart' look that she had programmed into the cuffs before leaving the tower – she would have to switch between it and the Iron Maiden and jeans number.

"I am never going to get used to that," Phil mumbled as they left the room.

"Oh wait," Toni jogged back to the capsule and felt along one of the corner for the control that she knew was there…or not.

She moved to the other side and did the same thing.

"I know what you mean. Must be pretty freaky seeing me vanish to be replaced with this handsome devil huh?"

She continued feeling along the inside edge. She had definitely –

"Got it!" she announced triumphantly, snatching the control from where she had secured it.

She walked away while fiddling with it – damn thing was still a bit glitchy – until it finally did what she wanted and the capsule hissed closed. She slid the control into her pocket.

"Sorry about that," she apologised to Phil as _this_ time they managed to leave the room and secure the door.

The corridor was still empty so Toni took the opportunity to ask Phil how things were really going with his girlfriend. He stayed silent for a few seconds obviously thinking about what to say. His reply didn't come until they were actually surrounded by the bustling top-secret staff.

"Things just weren't working out,"

Toni's heart sank.

That really sucked. Phil was a really nice guy – true that age old phrase 'when you got to know him' did kind of apply – and he deserved to be happy.

"I'm sorry to hear that," she mumbled, not entirely sure what the protocol was when comforting someone after a break up?

"Nothing to worry about," Phil told her with fake bravado, directing her down another corridor, "Just work you know, for the number of times she saw me she decided she may as well be back home and talking to me over the phone,"

"But…I thought you guys were getting on really well," she asked, faltering slightly.

Toni just couldn't understand relationships. The only people who had been in her life for any amount of time were Obediah – and, well, she had ended up having to kill him – and Pip – she didn't exactly have romantic intentions towards the man who was like a surrogate father to her. They had been in her life for as long as she could remember, building a relationship with them hadn't required any work on her part. Outside of them Phil was really the only other person 'close' to her and again she didn't even know how that had happened…

Silence fell again and she could make out the voices of the rag-tag team Fury had put together.

She straightened her back and schooled her expression. Concentrating on her walk she tried to nail the swagger – the last thing she wanted was having suspicious glances thrown her way just because she couldn't control her girly legs and hips.

"He's adopted," the deep gravelly voice of Thor told someone.

_Must be talking about Loki…_

"I think it's about the mechanics," piped in a softer but no less masculine voice.

_Hello, who are you?_

Her interest was piqued by their next comment as she and Phil turned the last corned and the confab area came into view.

"Iridium?" the voice continued thoughtfully, "What do they need it for?"

"It's a stabilising agent," she told them – minus any introductions.

A thought came to her before she parted from Phil – for a genius she thought herself extremely thick at times.

She turned to Phil walking slightly backwards and sideways, almost hissing the words to not let the others know what she was saying.

"Pick a weekend, Phil. Any and I'll fly you to Portland. You'll be there before you can blink," she offered and he looked at her wide eyed, for a second obviously forgetting about the audience, and smiled at her softly. He just gestured towards his destination.

"Gotta keep love alive," she whispered as he walked to his station.

She sighed, well, it was worth a try.

She refocused on the group, facing the right way once again.

_Where was I? Oh yeah-_

"It means that the portal won't go all super-nova like it did at S.H.I.E.L.D." she told them walking towards the observation station – a perfect place for the bug in her pocket.

**Hi hunnies!**

**I hope you are all having fun weekend (and staying safe with the crazy weather if you are in the UK (or anywhere else))**

**I just want to say that I am still feeling pretty under the weather and the majority of this chapter has been written…wrote…written *shrug* while under the influence of uber-drowsy inducing medication – I am trying to do this while I am coming up to the next dose so I am not quite so out of it lol – so I apologise for any blatant typos that I may have missed or if this chapter got a little rambly in places (READER - like this authors note? ME – Exactly!)**

**Anyhoo, you guys continue to be AWESOMNESS itself. 83 reviews and 159 followers! How amazing is that?**

**Any chance of maybe reaching 100 reviews for this chapter…? (no pressure, just a thought)**

**Soo…I think that is all to report…**

**Oh, I've made some changes to my original fic – Sink or Swim – Link to that is on my profile page. Seriously, I would love to know what you think if you fancy checking it out.**

**Hopefully next update won't take a week. I will try my hardest. **

**Take care :)**


	10. Chapter 10

***I still own (drum roll) NOTHING! Sad but true***

* * *

**Toni's Point of View**

She relaxed her posture slightly, painting the picture of a man who didn't really care where his walk took him. Thor made to come towards her, contrition and guilt evident on his face but she beat him to the point though.

"Don't worry about it Fabio, you got a mean right hook." She shot off, wincing internally at the memory. She gave him a pat on the arm as she sauntered past him, trying her best to keep her back straight (but not too rigid) and not to wince. It wouldn't do for her to be showing signs of pain from no visible injury.

"It also means the portal can open for as long and as wide as Loki needs it,"

She strolled to the edge of Fury's crow's nest, noting that from this vantage point nothing could go on without him knowing about it. Figured, the guy had a control complex the size of New York.

"Master of all he surveys," she mumbled under her breath, just stopping herself from grinning at all the lovely and completely hack-able computers spread out before her like a picnic.

_Like taking candy from a baby. _

Toni had never really understood that saying. Why would you give a baby candy to begin with? Now, that sloppy, sweet smelling awfully lumpy baby-food…that was another matter… But then it didn't really trip off the tongue the same way.

Speaking of babies.

"Raise the mizzenmast, jib the top sails," she ordered, giving into the five year old that was always lurking near the surface. She swept her gaze over her 'crew', seeing most of them remaining fixed on their work while some threw her looks that told her more plainly than words what they thought of her…well, him. Something on a screen caught her eye.

She pointed.

"That man in playing Galaga," she announced obnoxiously loud and, using the hand that wasn't pointing the accusing finger she quickly planted the bug – pressing it beneath the desk and activating it - while everyone's eyes were either on her gesturing arm or on the culprit.

"He thought we wouldn't notice, but we did," she trailed off.

Her mission completed Toni began winding down the spectacle she was making of herself, fighting the blush that she could feel burning under the neckline of her shirt. Thankfully it wouldn't show up quite the same on her holographic face.

She studied the computer screens in front of her thoughtfully, lifting a hand to her left eye and then studying them again.

She really loved playing the little devil sometimes, even if it would embarrass the life out of her when she thought about it later.

"How does Fury even see these?" she tried to keep the smirk in her head and not on her face as she turned to Hill.

"He turns," the agent deadpanned, her arms crossed over her chest, her posture rigid.

_I won't be getting in her way if bullets start to fly. I'll be at the top of her list on the 'accidental hit' list. _

"Sounds exhausting," she muttered, spinning back to the screens and flicking at them in a way that everyone but her would see as pointless. Of course they didn't know that she had just created a lovely little crack in the system to make her babies work a little bit faster.

That's what she loved about people who thought they knew everything. They tended not to see the obvious or to think that someone wouldn't dare to have the audacity to do something as barefaced as she was. Like now. Here she was in a room filled with some of the most intelligent people on the planet (she had a feeling Fury would settle for nothing but the best) and yet she was getting away with treason.

She continued talking – almost to herself – to keep up the act that she wasn't really focusing on anything at all.

"Agent Barton can easily get hold of the rest of the raw materials. Now the power source of a high energy density that is going to be the hitch in the plan," One more thing – there!

"They'll need it to kick start the cube," she swiped a finger across the screen, planting a bored look on her face for show and spun to face the 'team' – she resisted the urge to roll her eyes as she scanned them all, the same way that she would an enemy.

Thor she had already met – it was obvious the guy loved his brother no matter what Loki had done. Capsicle (who was still in his superhero costume – didn't the guy own anything else?), she already knew pretty much everything about even down to his blood type, Natasha Romanoff…Toni still wasn't sure how she felt about the assassin come spy… and then there was **him.**

She was in the same room as one of her idols. She would love to corner Bruce Banners brain, get it drunk and just let it talk.

She stopped thinking and brought her mind back quickly to what she was saying.

"I'm thinking something bigger than an AA battery here guys," she folded her arms across her chest.

Silence.

"When did you become an expert of thermo-nuclear astrophysics?" Agent Hill asked cattily.

_Meow! Put away the claws lady!_

"Last night," she sneered back, with no guilt over her attitude. The doctor's papers had been an interestingly quick read to say the least. She looked away from Hill to see everyone sitting at the table staring at her looking confused. Well, everyone except for the standing Banner.

"The packet?" nothing "Selvig's notes? The extraction theory papers?" still no sign of recognition on anyone's face – again, except for Banner. She felt her anger begin to bubble at this. Seriously! They had no idea what they were actually going to be fighting for, or why? "Am I the only one who did the reading?"

Because if she was going to be used to go after someone she sure as hell wasn't going in blind and with no clue as to why.

Nothing.

Whatever anger driven comment that would have shot from her mouth at this revelation thankfully never happened at Capsicle decided to speak asking about the power source that was needed.

She concentrated on breathing as Dr Banner answered the questions flawlessly – although she doubted the Capsicle knew that what the doctor was saying was basically "HELL OF A LOT OF FIRE POWER!"

"He would have to heat the cube to 120 million kelvins just to break through the coulomb barrier," the quiet spoken man answered.

Toni thought she was going to either pass out or do a happy dance.

She decided on doing neither and seeing if the doctor really knew his stuff or if it was just a fluke.

"Unless," she piped in, "Selvig has figured out a way to stabiles the quantum tunnelling effect…" she began to walk towards Banner praying that it wasn't a fluke.

"Well, if he could do that he could achieve heavy ion fusion at any reactor in the plant,"

Toni was in love!

"Finally," she gestured to the others – just remembering to stay in character "someone who speaks English,"

Toni was feeling to giddy to make any reply to Capsicle's "Is that was just happened?" comment and instead reached out to shake Dr Banner's hand.

Up close the man wasn't really anything special.

He was a bit shorter than Anthony Stark although as Toni Stark she figures she would come to just a little past his shoulder. He had the look of someone who had been living stressed for far too long…nervy. Seeming to try his best to make himself appear smaller than he was. She found herself wondering if his slightly greying roots were from age or a physical showing of mental and physical trauma.

"It's good to meet you Dr Banner," she fought to control the excitement in her voice. She was shaking the hand of one of the most intelligent men on the planet. In fact she had been shaking his hand for a little bit too long now.

_Oops. _

She dropped the hand.

"Your work on anti-electron collusions is unparalleled," she gushed knowing that she was going to say something embarrassing an minute now, "And I'm a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into a giant green rage monster,"

Yip, and **there** it was. It was an indisputable fact of the universe that when she was around people embarrassments would happen.

The poor man just looked at like she had lost her mind and then he seemed to decide on a bemused smile as he stuttered an "Ummm thanks," at her.

Could she have been anymore stupid!

But then again though it looked like the doctor needed to come to terms with his green other self.

Fury entering the room saved her from having to try and un-embarrass Bruce – thankfully, because she had the gut feeling she would have dug herself into a deeper hole and give everyone else more reasons to think that Anthony Stark was a complete and utter prat.

"Dr Banner is here purely to help with tracking the cube, I was hoping that you could help him,"

_Yeah, sure, after I send you to Germany and put your shiny rocket-firing suit to use, _Toni thought tetchily, but settled with throwing a mocking salute at murmuring "Aye, aye, captain,".

She made a point of looking at no one, knowing that there would be at least two people glaring at her in disapproval. Romanoff and Rogers. She wasn't all too sure about Thor or Banner but she preferred not to know right now.

"I would start with that stick of his," Capsicle piped in, helpfully.

_You don't say Captain Lets Point out the-_

Toni stopped herself then.

She really needed to make an effort to stop being so bitchy, even if it was just in her thoughts.

"It may be magical, but it works an awful lot like a HYDRA weapon,"

_Ok, I have to admit, his reasoning isn't too bad at all._

"I don't know about that, but it is being powered by the cube,"

Toni's mind immediately began to churn with ways that they could maybe use the staff to speed up the search for the Tesseract. If it was being powered by it there must be a connection. Maybe they could follow the link? If she could configure a scanner to –

"And I would like to know how Loki used it to turn two of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys,"

_Oh yeah. Meeting. _

Her eyes darted about the room trying to get a fix on everyone's emotions. Romanoff's expression stuck out to her the most. It was only there for a second but long enough for Toni to know that the assassin was more affected by what was happening than what she was wanting everyone to know. She remembered the files and videos that Phil had brought her – was that only last night? – and knew that Romanoff must be close with the archer even if she didn't want to be. Life or death situations tended to do that to you…

She caught Thor moving out of the corner of her eye and switched her focus to him. The almost comical expression of confusion on his face had her wanting to giggle.

_Mustn't have Wizard of Oz on his planet._

"Monkeys? I do not understand,"

The poor guy probably thought they had been literally magic-ed into something.

"I do!" Capsilcle announced, excited.

She felt a pang in her chest. The Capsicle had been launched into a whole new century with nothing – technology, sayings, nothing – being familiar. His happiness at hearing something he knew made her want to hug him.

But she didn't.

Because first and foremost, she still didn't like him all that much. And second, even the eccentric Tony Stark would get some funny looks if he threw his arms around Captain America in the middle of a briefing.

She crossed her arms over her chest – just in case.

"I understood that reference," Capsicle explained to the now silent team.

She rolled her eyes. If no one could join the dots and reach that conclusion themselves they were idiots.

Silence reigned for a few more seconds until she broke it by turning to Banner.

"Shall we play, doctor?" she grinned.

The scientist smiled back, and she was sure she saw a conspiratorial glint in his eye as he gestured to the hallway at their backs. Or it could have just been a trick of the light.

"This way sir,"

**Hello everyone. **

**I am so sorry for the long wait. The past fortnight has just been HELL! But I won't bore you with the details (one word - FAMILY!).**

**I hope you enjoyed this chapter, I know it stuck pretty much to the film but I hope I am making Toni enough of her own person to make it kind of new for you guys. I tried to make it clear that she isn't being totally blinded by her dislike for Steve and she can appreciate his situation. I hope that came across ok :)**

**I won't make any promises for when the next chapter will be out – might be tomorrow, might be next week or the week after. Things are just too crazy for me to say right now but I will be writing whenever I have the chance. **

**I have had a few comments/messages about what Captain Americas shield is made out of. I said adamantium as when I looked it up the article said it was made of an adamantium steel-vibranium alloy. Soooo yeah….**

**I hope you all have a good week!**

**Remember – Feedback makes the fairies happy :)**


	11. Chapter 11

**Thank you so much guys for all of the favourite-ing (totally a word ;)), following and commenting! You all continue to be amazing! :)**

***Yip, I still own nothing – very sad I know***

* * *

**Toni's Point of View**

Toni liked the lab. It didn't measure up to her own at home – but then she hadn't thought it would – but there was everything she needed and a more than one computer for her to use to her own dastardly ends.

There had been a few minutes crammed full of awkwardness while they measured each other up – but Toni hadn't expected anything else really. She bit her tongue during the silence, trying to resist the urge to be the first one to break it. But she wanted to so badly. She could feel her inner fangirl just itching to burst out and leap upon the nervy doctor. But she remained in control.

Only just.

They found a balance quickly enough. Bruce seemed to be in his element as he collaborated the machinery to scan the sceptre of doom and Toni was in heaven with all of the tech quite literally lining the walls.

The silence had finally ended - thank goodness, her nerves were beginning to crumble with it – when Bruce asked her for her opinion on the frequency levels he was setting the scanner to.

"The gamma readings are definitely consistent with Selvig's report of the tesseract," Banner announced, running the scanner over the sceptre as she walked back over to her station and began to play about with the systems. "But it's going to take weeks to process,"

_Phhh. Not if I have anything to say about it. _

"If we by-pass their mainframe," she found the coding she needed and began to put in her own lines, "And direct route to the Homer cluster," she pressed and dragged what she needed, "we can clock this at around 600 teraflops," she dragged the screen to the side, clearing it, satisfaction coursing through her.

_I really need to talk to Fury about his systems and rubbish security. _

"All I packed was a toothbrush," Banner commented dryly.

She wanted to giggle at that but caught herself in time and it came out as a chuckle instead.

_I'm going to have to watch that if I'm going to be here for long. _

"You should come by Stark Tower sometime," she told him, making her way back over to him and leaning back against the table her arms across her chest. And then the shooting pain in her ribs and arm reminded her of her injuries and she quickly straightened up and lowered her arms.

"Top ten floors are all R and D, you'd love it. It's like candy-land,"

"Thanks, but the last time I was in New York, I kind of broke…Harlem,"

Toni remembered reading about it and seeing some of the footage and winced internally, but before she could think of a reply the door to the lab swished open and Capsicle walked in. Still in his uniform.

Now, Toni _was_ a girl, and although she didn't really like Steve she could still fully appreciate the dashing figure he cut in his uniform. But really, the guy had to own something else.

"How is everything going doctor?" he asked walking up to Banner and bypassing her completely.

_Wow, thanks, just ignore me then. _

She could read the confusion on Banner's face as he glanced between her and Capsicle. She shook her head slightly, telling him to not mind it.

"The sceptre is definitely linked with the Tesseract but it will take some time for the data to be processed," Banner told the other man, still looking less than comfortable.

The Capsicle's head bobbed up and down and Toni resisted the urge to throw around some big words and mind boggling terms just so she could watch him get confused and try not to show it. But she wasn't that mean…yet.

"What about you Mr Stark?"

_Oh so now he decides to notice I am here. _

"Hmm?"

_What about me?_

"What are you doing?" the Capsicle repeated himself his tine flirting with irritation.

The nerve!

She tried to take some calming breaths. She wasn't used to people questioning her and hovering. She worked alone, she always had and this was the longest amount of time she had ever been in anyone else's presence – except for Pip and Obediah. She wanted to scratch Miss America's eyes out! Or even better, ask him what the hell he was doing to help find the Tesseract.

Just…Just…Just. Agh! The nerve.

_Well I am messing about with the internal systems and coding so that this can all get done a lot quicker. I am trying not to pass out because – NEWSFLASH – being treated as a punching bag by an ancient alien really takes it out of you. I am trying to breath as properly as I can with broken ribs. I am attempting to not give anything away by acting too girly and trying to deal with being around so many people. Oh and I am hacking into S.H.I.E. networks. Anything else?_

"Stuff," she answered and went back over to her station.

She answered to no one – well, maybe Fury – and especially not someone who didn't even bother to acknowledge her when he walked into a room.

**3 hours later**

Toni was exhausted.

She had finally been shown to her quarters by a member of the crew after both she and Banner had decided that it was best to call it a night. She had dragged her feet all the way back down to the storage-bay so she could grab her hadn't even made it to the end of the first corridor on her return trip when she was met by a representative of Phil's (bless his heart) and escorted through the ship.

After Capsicle had left the lab – there had been a lovely awkward silence after her 'stuff' announcement – it had taken them longer than either she or Banner had predicted to set the scanners. It had taken seven complete trial scans to get the levels right Each scan taking just over ten minutes to complete.

There was nothing much to do during these gaps so she had put her time to good use by watching the interview between Loki and Fury that she had missed earlier. She nearly choked on her coffee and Fury's leaving comments – 'let me know if real power wants a magazine or something," Classic! She doubted even she could do any better than that.

She rewound the footage and watched it again and again until she nailed what she didn't feel right about.

"JARVIS zoom in on-Oh yeah," she had cut herself off feeling stupid when she caught Banner looking over at her with raised eyebrows. She pressed some buttons and tapped the screen.

The image had lost focus for a second before zooming in on the figure behind the glass. The figure re-pixelated and settled on the screen and she began to play the clip again. She had kept her eyes fixed on Luki's face and began to nod her head.

Something was off…

She shook herself from the memory and concentrated on the space that was going to be hers during her time on the hellicarrier.

As far as rooms went it was…basic. There was a single bed, a bedside table complete with a wall lamp and a desk that doubled as a set of drawers. And then there was the door that led to a shower, sink and toilet. It had everything that was needed and it was obvious that it was made to serve a function and that was it.

She dropped her bag onto the floor and took out her phone – bug protected to defend against nosey parkers like one Nicholas Fury – and pressed the icon that had a silhouette of Mary Poppins in the little square and putting the phone on speaker she popped it on the bedside table.

She was actually nervous.

Was this how normal kids felt when they broke their curfew? It felt horrible.

After several rings her call was answered.

"Philip Potts,"

In a split second she realised one thing and decided another. She realised that Philip hadn't looked at his caller ID and she decided this was a good thing because it gave her the chance to talk before he yelled at her.

So she launched straight into things.

"So I nabbed a bad guy who I don't actually think is entirely a bad guy today," she rushed.

"Toni! Where the hell are you?" came the angry reply. She cringed.

"Umm, classified. Sorry," she mumbled, feeling edgy.

She needed to do something to keep her hands busy.

She started by switching of the hologram and sliding the cuffs from her limbs. Then she lifted her bag from the floor and dumped it on the bed, rummaging for something to sleep in.

"Classified! I asked you to do one thing Toni. To keep me in the loop and the first thing you do is zap off without so much as a 'don't wait up',"

_Oops._

"And where do you go speeding off to? Germany of all places. GERMANY! I thought Fury wanted you for a project here! And what do I see you doing – you are all over YouTube by the way – playing whose-is-bigger with some crazy psycho in Europe!"

Woe, Pip was really angry.

"And what do you mean he isn't a bad guy? Because he looks like a pretty fine example of an open and shut case to me," he snapped.

_Yeah, that's just the problem. _

Toni could just imagine Pip pacing and running a hand through his hair in that way he did whenever she gave him cause too. Which, in all fairness, wasn't all that often. Well, lately anyway.

She didn't like making him worry and she was sorry that he was now.

"I'm sorry Pip. I should have let you know but you would have tried to talk me out of it," she told him (although she knew it didn't excuse her keeping him in the dark) pulling her t-shirt over her head and replacing it with the baggiest of the comfortable t-shirts that she had packed.

"Yes I would," Pip answered.

"And they need me," she continued like he hadn't spoken, sitting down on the bed to undo her shoes.

Pip chuckled darkly and she rolled her eyes.

"You know that Fury wasn't happy with me being on the team after he found out about everything," her shoes off, Toni slowly lay back on the mattress and winced. There were definitely painkillers in her near future.

"Besides it is mainly research he wants me to lend a hand with-"

"Research?" Pip scoffed, "How did research land you in a face-off half way across the world Toni?"

"Um…fluke?"

Silence.

"Look Pip, I am really sorry I didn't tell you. But I am fine. I'm all in one piece,"

_Kind of. _

There was a deep sigh and a grunt from Pip and Toni smiled, feeling that knot in her chest loosen.

"Do you forgive me?" she asked.

_Please say yes._

"Yes Toni, I forgive you," came the grumpy mumbled reply.

Now it was her turn to sigh as relief flooded her.

"I would get you to promise me that you would never do it again but then that would be a pointless exercise,"

"Yeah, it would be,"

She began to turn onto her stomach and thought better of it when her ribs screamed

"So other than thwarting the plans of evil villains what else have you been up to?" Pip asked her, his tone not as light as it could be but the strain was definitely leaving it.

"I am working in the same lab as one Dr Bruce Banner! Can you believe it?" she almost squealed.

"Wow. No I can't,"

"Don't be sarcastic," she whined.

Pip chuckled and she knew for certain that she was forgiven.

"Ok, so you stopped a potential evil dictator in his tracks and now you are breathing the same air as Banner. Anything else?"

She totally wasn't telling him about the whole Thor thing. Maybe later though, when Fury was around for him to yell at instead of her.

"I met Howard Stark Junior," she grumbled.

There was a few seconds silence as Pip no doubt tried to figure out who she meant.

And then it clicked.

"Really? And how did that go?"

"The guy is a self-righteous fossil who doesn't approve of me," she bit out, grabbing a pillow and slamming it over her face.

"What did he say?" Pip sounded angry now on her behalf and she flopped the pillow next to her head to answer him.

"Oh nothing out right. He gets this tone and I can tell he doesn't take me seriously. Well…Tony Stark seriously anyway,"

"You have to remember that Toni," Pip told her and she knew that if he was in the room right now he would be hugging her.

"Sweetie, none of those people know you for YOU. Don't let him or anyone else upset you. And if they do you just dredge up all that ego bashing sarcasm you keep on tap and let them have it!"

Toni couldn't stop the giggle that erupted from her and she heard Pip chuckle over the noise that she was making.

"Thank you Pip," she murmured once she had herself under control.

"So tell me, how is the site hunting going?"

* * *

**Steve Rogers Point of View**

Steve walked through the corridors, following the directions a member of the crew had given him.

He was heading to apologise to Mr Stark.

He felt guilty for the way he had spoken to the other man. Although he may have deserved it with his flippant way of approaching things Steve realised that if they were to work together one of them had to be the bigger man.

Coming up to the door he raised his hand to knock when mumbling voices inside stopped him.

There was someone inside the room with Stark.

He didn't want to interrupt anything but then at the same time he would much rather clear the air sooner rather than later.

He went to knock again when the voices grew a little louder.

He couldn't make out the words but he could make out one thing.

There was a woman in the room.

A giggling woman.

And from the deeper gruffer voice he could hear Stark was in the room too.

He had read about the other man's 'playboy' tendencies but he would have thought he could control himself while the safety of the planet was on the line.

Clenching the hand he had raised to knock he turned and stalked off. His face twisted in disgust.

* * *

**Hi everyone. **

**Again I am so sorry for the delay in posting this. It has taken me the best part of 3 weeks to get it all typed – LIFE wouldn't go away. I could have posted something last week but I want to give you guys substantial updates as much as possible :)**

**But here I am finally. YAY!**

**Yay, I finally got to deviate more from the original *happy dance*. Wahahaha, I couldn't resist throwing in that little bit at the end with Steve – that's what happens when you eavesdrop.**

**I couldn't resist throwing in that Toni isn't blind to Steve's cuteness either but that she still thinks he is a prat lol. **

**They are going to be on the hellicarrier for a bit longer than in the film, so some things are being shuffled around – just if you are wondering why the scene with Toni, Bruce and Steve was different. And I couldn't imagine MY Toni zapping Bruce just after they had met…I don't think so anyway…**

**I really hope you all have had a good and safe weekend. **

**Take care guys and remember feedback makes the fairies happy :) **


	12. Chapter 12

**I still own nothing. **

**Very sad :(**

**Chapter 12**

Toni decided that she had been very shallow in her initial impression of the floating S.H.I.E.L.D. facility. Oh sure it was pretty to look at – very pretty to look at. With its shiny bulkheads and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang capabilities it was a conspiracy theorists dream come true – and she was sure the great American public would just LOVE to know where their Tax dollars were going (like in keeping Fury in fashion with Armani patches and imposing leather jackets). But even the pretty blinkies surrounding her in the lab couldn't make up for how crap people were.

She had been on the carrier a day and a night and she was fed up of the human beings surrounding her.

They looked down on her constantly. She could see what they thought of her ('him' she reminded herself, 'him') in their eyes whenever she opened her mouth.

Who was she kidding. People in general didn't bother her. Most of the time the staff on board the carrier were too busy doing what they were doing to pay her much mind unless she opened her big mouth and let something sarcastic fly – and then frowns and looks of disapproval were thrown her way.

But it was captain Icicle Butt who was really starting to get on her wick.

His self-righteousness and boy-next-door persona set her teeth itching from the sugary sweetness of it all – if she had to get dental work because of the sweetness she was sending the bill to Fury (it was the principle of the thing). And he actually ignored her earlier. That was just rude.

She had woken up that morning, groggy and seeing double – lack of sleep tended to do that to a person – but after getting out of bed (well, it was more of a graceful roll/flop from the bed to the ground), having a shower (that she was still mostly asleep during), pouring her tired, floppy limbs into yesterday's clothes (hell, the hologram got to wear the same clothes so why couldn't she?) and firing up the cuffs she staggered to the mess hall and chugged down two cups of coffee in ten minutes. She felt like a new woman.

She had decided as she chewed through her bacon and rubbery eggs that she would try her best to behave today. It wasn't Star-Spangled-Banners fault that she had…issues. She would be nice.

So, when he had come into the mess she had called over to him.

"Yo, cap,"

She had even smiled.

And that, that humongous ancient jerk turned, looked her up and down, and with the stoniest expression she had ever seen he walked off.

Just like that.

What had she done WHILE SHE WAS ASLEEP to cause that kind of reaction?

_Well screw him!_

She pushed her chair away from table where she had been running the scanner over the alien-with-attitude's killer stick and walked to the other workstation. The one that held a very innocent looking silver can.

It had been a very quiet morning compared to the drama of the day before and Toni scrubbed at her eyes in a futile attempt to wake herself up and swiping the can from the table she took another (rather noisey) slurp of her Red Bull, the second can in the last hour (she had, after all, promised Pip that she would cut back on the caffeine). Well, it wasn't technically Red Bull any more. Thanks to her dumping several caffeine tablets into it she was hoping for it to send her straight into orbit and not to just giver her wings (so maybe she hadn't really cut back but in the event of the reactor exploding she had her will all made out so a caffeine overdose wasn't much to worry about).

She never slept well on the few occasions that he had been away from home and she was away from her own bed and this time was no different. She had spent most of the night thinking over her course of action.

Should she tell Fury her suspicions about the footage? It wasn't a surprise that her mind had immediately screamed 'HELL NO!' to that question. She liked the dude – to a point – but that did not mean that she trusted him. It was dangerous to view anyone in Fury's position as a friend and he needed to be viewed with suspicion – at least until J.A.R.V.I.S. had cracked the system and she could see just what the one-eyed bandit was hiding.

So now the question was whether she should she tell _anyone_? That one was a little more iffy.

Should she bother to do anything? Well duh, of course she should.

What should she do? Hell if she knew.

She sighed heavily and ran her eyes over the results to the long-term scans still being performed on Loki's sceptre. Nothing.

Now that she had the chance to look at it without worrying about how to set up the scanners she thought it was a very sleek weapon.

_Pretty sexy. _

She could appreciate a lovely, shiney piece of new tech as much as the next gadget loving girl but this was something else and she really wished she could get hold of whoever had made it and talk to them about it. The dagger sharp tip made it clear that it could be used as a close range weapon but then there was the power it channelled. How did it know it was to be fired? Did it read a person mind? A bio-signature maybe? There was no apparent on/off switch…

The door swished open and Bruce entered the lab with a food tray piled high with items. They had agreed to stay in the lab all day today and when no one could be found to fetch them some lunch Bruce had volunteered. Well maybe she had manoeuvred him into it. The guy needed to be around people more than she did.

He lowered the tray to an empty spot by one of the computer.

"The hunter gatherer returns," she announced, swaggering in true Stark fashion to the food and swiping up an apple.

Bruce simply rolled his eyes.

"All the way from the wilds of B-Deck," he dead-panned.

"Yeah, well, 'it's a jungle out there', or so they say," she smirked, biting into the apple.

**2 hours later**

Toni clicked her tongue on the top of her mouth and looked around the room for inspiration. Nothing. Well, she could peel off the wall panelling by the door and hotwire one of the scanners into the wall. Then all she would have to do was steal some kind of sample from Captain Goodie Goodie and set it to not let him in the room. Nope, that would just be sinking to his level.

Maybe she could drag one of the tables over to the hatch in the roof and play about with the lights. A screwdriver and some of that coloured plastic from lunch and she could have disco lights set-up in no time at all. Nope, too childish.

Why did Bruce have to be called away for a meeting with Fury? It wasn't fair. Here she was with one of the leading minds of the world and he was off no doubt getting some very rubbish wishy-washy excuse for the lovely greenhouse that had been built to keep something stronger and bigger than a freaking god trapped in it.

Yeah, like they couldn't all add that together and get HULK.

Boredom had quickly descended over her when Bruce left the room and her mind had began to wonder almost immediately. The readings weren't doing anything and she eyed up the staff as one would a sleeping lion. Wondering if it would bite off her arm if she prodded it with a stick.

So she began to think through a plan for her own sexy staff. She would have to design it to fold into itself in some way so it could be stored either on the back or in the arm of her suit. Or maybe along the thigh piece? She could design it on a slight angle and it would slide out with ease. Forward or backwards? Forward would mean less chance of injuring her arm and would lead to less strain.

She stood up and began to practice with an imaginary staff where the best place would be to store the future weapon. She moved slowly, ever mindful of her bandaged ribs. Her findings were inconclusive and she decided she would need to make the staff before she could know for sure. And then she would need to work on modifying the suit and then-

"What are you doing?" she stopped in the sweeping movement she had been making from the bottom of her left arm (around the elbow) out in front of her and turned around.

A slightly frazzled looking but amused Bruce stood in the door way. The doctor looked very tired and she wondered what effect coffee would have on his control. Maybe he would like some of her Red Bull.

"Just stretching," she raised her arms above her head to show what she meant and hid the wince as her ribs screamed in protest.

_Not very clever, Toni. _

She lowered her arms quickly and walked back to her station not bothering to hide her wincing but quickly controlled her features when she turned about.

"How did it go? Secret handshakes and blood oaths?" she asked.

Bruce grimaced and went to his own station. Pressing points on the screen and bringing up various windows to check results - not that anything had changed in the past hour and half since he had been gone.

"Contingency plan," he mumbled.

"Ouch," she mumbled back.

What was worse than having a secret kill plan against you? Having a not-so-secret kill plan against you, she decided.

"Yeah,"

An uncomfortable silence fell and she tried to think of a way to get across to him that he was doing pretty well – in her humble opinion – without offending him.

"Bruce, you must be doing something right if you are dealing okay with Captain Icicle Pants and our merry band of misfits,"

Deciding to take her point a bit further she picked up one of the charge rods and twisted the top, she felt it whiz and crackle slightly in her hand as the energy built. She casually approached Bruce and prodded him with the pencil sized stick, sending a quick jolt of electricity through him from his arm.

"Hey!" he called in shock and she quickly jerked forward, her face a mere inch away from his as she stared into his eyes. He had nice eyes.

She smiled and his body shifted slightly away from hers although his head stayed in the same place.

"See," she patted him on the back roughly, "nothing!"

Bruce only gave her a bemused smile as she moved out of his personal space.

"So be honest now, what's your secret?"

"Are you crazy?"

The annoyed and more than a little worried tone of the Capsicle blew her happy feeling right out of the water and kick started her own irritation.

He would have to show up now wouldn't he?

She straightened her back and turned her head lazily.

"Jury's still out," she told him and faced Bruce again, continuing as though there had never been an interruption.

"Yoga? Pan pipes? YouTube kitten videos? Ooo I know," she paused for dramatic effect, "you have a huge bag of weed hidden in your room don't you,"

Bruce chuckled at this and she felt a lovely warmth in her stomach at actually brining genuine amusement instead of annoyance to a person's face. It was a nice feeling. She could get used to it.

"Is this all a joke to you?"

Was he still there?

"Funny things are," she fired back at him, wanting him gone already. Maybe she should have set up the scanner after all. She could have set it to keep all people six foot tall and over out of the room. She might have had it finished by now.

"Threatening the safety of every man and woman on this ship is not a joke, Stark,"

_I really hate you._

"Don't worry about it Captain. I wouldn't have come if I couldn't handle pointy things,"

_Hah! See! Vindication. _

Toni conducted a little victory lap in her head.

"You are here to work Stark. Do that," Captain America snapped and left the room, the door swished shut behind him. She was sure that of he could have he would have slammed it to make a point.

"_That's _the guy by dad never shut up about?"

Oh boy had Howard Stark gone on at a length about the world's first super hero. She had hours of tape and old videos that she could wade through whenever she wanted to listen to the old man harp on and great lengths about the great Captain America and how he wished his son to be just like him.

Blah, blah, blah.

The old fool had set himself up for a fall there actually. Dropping dead of a heart attack when he found out that she – his last chance at fatherhood – had been born a girl. How was he ever to live down the lie he had created for himself.

The father of an imaginary son and an all too real daughter.

She sighed.

"They should have kept him on ice,"

**Hi guys. **

**I am so sorry for the long wait for his chapter. I was stuck in a bit of a hole and had no idea how to go on from the last chapter. **

**I hope you enjoyed this though. **

**There are some deviations from the movie with the arguments with Steve and Tony but it will be getting slotted in later on. **

**A little bit of Toni's history there too. **

**Have a great week guys. **

**Take care. **


End file.
